Starbird of the Empire
by absolx23
Summary: Palpatine had created a Contingency plan in case of his death. The most loyal parts of his empire would leave the galaxy in shambles and retreat to the unknown regions to one day return. But he needed to ensure a sith would rule the new empire. So he created an heir. But that part of the plan was lost with Rax, so the heir became a child named Rey, with a very different destiny.
1. Chapter 1: Stranded

AN: So this was originally posted on AO3 a while back, since I just prefer the formatting there. But since I realized I typically get more feedback here, I posted all the chapters here. I'll probably post the last chapter around the same time I post it on Ao3 now. I'll be posting my AO3 notes here, although removing a few bits that a no longer relevant.

The theory this fic is based on is posted here: post/167906831715/rey-palpatine-theory (although it has some outdated trailer speculation) and the changes in my theory after TLJ: post/168629396213/my-rey-parentage-theory-after-tlj Although the odds of this being correct are a lot less likely, it's still possible, and most importantly, a fun idea to write about.

* * *

Chapter Managemen

 _Shortly after the battle of Jakku- The starship graveyard, Jakku_

Carva Malarus blinked. Her head pounded and it felt full of medical gauze. Where was she? It all came rushing back to her. She had been assigned to the _Eviscerator_ (her, a navy ensign working for an ISB Admiral, what a sorry state the Empire was in). Counselor Rax said that he had gotten enough factions to agree to make a last stand on Jakku. Then the _Eviscerator_ had been heavily damaged in the sub-orbital atmosphere, forcing an evacuation. She had managed to get into an escape pod with a stormtrooper.

She looked to her left, the very effort causing her pain. There they were, the stormtrooper who had joined her. It looked like they were also coming to. Escape pods weren't meant to be launched sub-orbitally. Although they were still technically at a safe distance, the rough landing must have knocked them both unconscious.

Malarus unstrapped herself from her harness and forced herself off the bench. The pod was slanted up at a 40-degree angle and all the viewports were dark. Using the safety railings she pulled herself over to the box that stored rations and medpacs. They (or at least she. The ensign hadn't decided if the stormtrooper would be coming with) would need those. As she began to open it, she was relieved to hear a pleasant beep. Neither the locking mechanisms nor her code cylinders had been damaged in the crash. The stormtrooper had also unstrapped themselves and had joined her.

She lowered herself to the floor, wincing as her hips protested. Using the underside of the bench to keep her upright, she set the rations aside and began opening the medpac. The trooper had yet to say anything and was still supporting themselves with the supplies box. "Your name?" she asked not looking up or letting her pain upset her clipped tones.

"LT-621," he replied, clearly sounding hurt.

Malarus flinched as she injected the contents of a syringe marked with the word "stim." That would keep her going for a while. Turning her focus inward, she didn't feel any injuries worse than bruising from a bumpy ride. She'd best save the antibiotics and bacta bandages for later. Or if LT-621 needed any help.

"Injuries?" she asked as she packed up the contents of the medpac.

"Not quite sure. Everything hurts. Permission to remove helmet and armor to check?"

"Permission granted," Malarus replied as she went to inventory their other supplies.

LT took off his helmet and Carva saw he had pale skin with regulation styled, yet curly, black hair. After removing all his armor and patting himself down, he reported to her. "I feel pretty groggy ma'am, but I can't find any cuts or broken bones. Nothing worse than bruising." Without the voice modulator in his helmet, Malarus realized he sounded pretty young and scared. Heck, he looked young. For all she knew, he could have been pulled out of an academy early to bolster imperial forces after Endor just like her.

The ensign bit her lip. Malarus had used up half of the stim up on herself. She'd might need the rest later. However, a second person would allow both the more robust blaster the trooper brought with him and her small blaster to be used simultaneously, and make it easier to carry supplies. Carrying around dead weight would just weaken her. "There's enough stim left for you in this med pack, but we're only going to manage to reunite with the imperial forces if you follow my lead." Already her head was clearing and adrenaline was counteracting the soreness of her muscles.

LT-621 took the syringe and closed his eyes tight before injecting. When he did, he let out a small yelp. Carva sighed internally, she didn't know if his weak will would make this harder or easier. But she had already spent resources on him, she couldn't discard him too carelessly now.

Now that Malarus had finished inventory of all their supplies (enough food for 2 weeks, enough water for 1 week (being this was a desert planet), 4 doses of general antibiotics, 8 bacta patches, 2 lightsticks, 1 firestarter, 1 energy pack for a stormtrooper blaster, the material for a small prefab tent, and a handheld distress beacon), all they needed to do put it all in the backpack and try to rendezvous with the imperial forces. She stood up, trying to not show how the angle of the pod was making her unsteady. Then she listened. It was quiet. For better or worse, the battle had ended. "You'll be carrying your blaster and the supplies. Leave your armor and helmet behind, it will only slow you down." LT nervously swallowed, probably worried about breaking protocol, but this was also a direct order from the most senior member in the pod.

Carva pressed the button to open the door of the pod, meaninglessly praying to the gods that were worshiped on her home planet. She had heard tales of people who had died in pods with broken doors. She didn't want to be one of them. Thankfully, the door managed to open, allowing sand to spill in. However, they couldn't be too deep, as she could see the bright blue Jakku sky shining through. "Guess we will have to climb, soldier," she said, turning back to see him carrying the pack and his weapon strapped to his side.

* * *

It was over. Malarus scanned the horizon. Everywhere she looked, there were downed imperial ships. She counted at least two star destroyers and could see the body of the _Ravager_ in the far off distance. And countless smaller ships, shuttles, and walkers littered the ground, soon to be buried by the sand. Rebellion- no, Republic ships were also scattered across the sands, but only at a 3rd of the rate of imperial ones. She saw no star destroyer hanging above them, executing or forcing confessions out of the Republic leaders. This was going to be their last stand, where the Empire would obliterate the weak Republic dogs and strength would once again rule the galaxy. Any imperial remnants that didn't join them were not true members of the empire.

Not that she would be getting off. Jakku was a wasteland, even more so now. The Republic wouldn't become the strength here, even if they ruled the galaxy. It would return to the lost and hiding scum that lived here before. To survive here, she would have to be strong. And the Empire was no longer that.

She heard grunting and scrabbling as LT-621, pulled himself up, burdened by the backpack. "Ancients…" he said, his voice filled with equal measures of terror and awe.

"The empire is no more," Malarus fixed her eyes on the horizon. She put grief into her voice, but this was all a calculated move. She was relying on her force of will to overpower the trooper's, keep him following orders without imperial loyalty. "We must survive without it."

Then she turned to face LT. "What's your name?"

He seemed taken aback, as she expected. "I already told you, it's LT-"

"No, your given name. There is no more empire, no imperial navy to enforce these things. And besides, whatever it is will probably be faster to say than your ID number. I'm Carva Malarus."

"Casper. Casper Guffin."

"Well, Casper. We're stuck on a gods-forsaken desert planet. Which means finding a source of water is the most important." Malarus paused, scanning the horizon again. She didn't think any of the ships could be used as shelter, at least for awhile. Many of them were still burning and all had questionable structural integrity. She had almost resigned herself to picking a direction at random and hoping there was a settlement that way, when she heard the roar of engines above her. As soon as Malarus registered the shape of a U-wing in the distance, she grabbed Casper's wrist and bolted, forcing her legs to run.

She didn't stop until she pulled her companion behind the wing of a downed X-wing. Then she opened up and back and pulled out the distress beacon, not saying a word until after she had chucked it as close to the escape pod as possible.

"What was that for?" Casper sounded very offended.

Malarus took a deep breath to slow her head and steady her words. "I have no interest in being made an example of, executed, or quietly banished to some penal colony."

"Huh?"

"That was a Republic U-wing. They were looking for any escape pods or surviving pilots. Retrieving their people and enacting whatever their idea of justice is on the imps."

"Oh."

Malarus peaked over the rim of their cover. The U-wing had begun to continue its search in the other direction. It didn't seem to have access to imperial distress channels, but it paid to be safe. And it wasn't like there was any Empire that would even bother to rescue them left.

"Hey, Malarus," Casper called to her, fear in his voice. "I see some...things coming toward us. What should we do?"

Carva turned around to see what Casper had spotted. There, off in the distance, the heat distorting their forms, was what looked like a diminutive humanoid riding some fusion of a walker and a dewback.

"Draw your weapon, but do not fire," Maralus ordered, "we will meet it. It may be able to point us in the direction of a settlement." As Casper drew his rifle, Malarus drew snub-blaster (making sure the safety was off and it was set to kill). With Guffin marching a few paces behind her, they went to meet their new ally- or enemy.

* * *

The alien's beast of burden paused as the imperials came within ten feet of it. As the humanoid dismounted, Malarus saw it was almost completely covered in cloth wrappings. It looked like some sort of mutated Tusken Raider. Malarus hoped it wasn't as hostile those Tatooine savages.

The ensign held out a hand for her companion to pause. "We mean you no harm. Point us in the direction of the nearest settlement and you can go about your task. If you don't," Malarus casually lifted her blaster. "You'll get a blaster bolt through your head and we'll get a mount."

The creature began to chirp in some unknown language while drawing its spear. Great, damned the thing didn't even know Basic. She was about to put a blaster bolt through its head and be done with it, when she heard a man call for them to stop, and then presumably repeat the phrase in this creature's tongue.

The man was human, with one dead eye. He carried a walking stick made of worn and carved wood. His skin was brown, darker than one would get as a tan from spending so much time out in this blasted star. He wore the long cotton clothing you'd expect on a desert planet, although the dark purple tones didn't seem practical.

Although the creature had lowered its spear, it was still agitated. It garbled away at the new man. After listening intently, he turned to Malarus.

"Are you intending to lay claim on this ship?" He pointed to the X-wing.

"No, go ahead," Malarus replied, slipping into a much less aggressive stance. Was that what the thing was so worked up about?

After nodding, the man translated her reply to the alien. The creature then got back on its mount and started lumbering towards the downed ship.

"You're imperials, aren't you?" the man asked.

Malarus couldn't tell which answer he wanted, so she answered truthfully. "Former imperials, correct. Now we're just like you."

The man laughed. "It is unlikely you intend to become anchorites. However, this metal graveyard will allow scavenging to be more than a Teedo's endeavor. The isolation of Jakku will also allow you to avoid the political fallout of this battle. Jakku will remain the same. Nor is there any way off this planet. However many of the inhabits still hold bitterness from the occupation. I'd endeavor to replace your uniform. At least remove the jacket for now."

Malarus nodded and began to unbutton the jacket that her code cylinder and rank insignia rested on. She then tied it around her waist by the sleeves, revealing the white undershirt she wore. "So, can you point us in the direction of a settlement?" She didn't want to be in this man's debt any more than she already was. He was the one with the advantage here.

"You'll find Cratertown just over the ridge," The man pointed in the direction he had come. "I had gone out to observe the battlefield, the ending of so many flames in the force, but life born from destruction has fulfilled me even more. I will walk with you." He turned on his heel and walked back the way he came.

Great, this was a religious nut. Well, who else would willingly live on such a backwater planet? Malarus knew the Force existed, that was an undeniable fact. But the concept that it would have a will of its own? That it would favor folks who spent hours honoring it. If it really favored some group, they'd be ruling the galaxy. It seemed to be just as passive as the wind or the sea. Not that she knew enough to get involved in theology. And angering their current guide would be unwise.

"What is your name, sir?" Casper asked. He still sounded differential, but Malarus could see protocol was falling apart. Not that she should worry. He would still follow her orders if she exerted her will and seemed in control.

"Amid Ozan. Your names?"

"L- Casper. Casper Guffin," It was clear he wasn't used to the whole given name thing.

"Carva Malarus," she replied, sounding calm and disinterested.

Their conversation was suddenly broken by the sound of a TIE screaming followed by S-foils firing. Looking up they saw an X-Wing chasing after a TIE, flying erratically. The starfighter chased the TIE into the graveyard where it was shot down. The New Republic starfighter then peeled off, looking for a new quarry.

Casper looked wide-eyed and nervous. His eyes were flicking between her and Amid, looking for reassurance. "But- I thought the fighting was over!"

"There's still a faction holding out." Amid replied, sounding as calm as ever. "Most of their forces are gathered on the far side of the planet. Without any capital ships, they are unable to mount a coordinated attack. They have lost, now it is just a matter of time. You do not need to worry about interference- imperial or Republic. The occupation left when the battle began and the staging area around Cratertown has been moved closer to the holdouts.

Malarus nodded, taking all this information in as they walked. Amid lead the way, and rather than hanging back behind her, Casper tried to match her stride and stay close to Amid. The entire time, he looked stressed and flustered, while Malarus tried to do her best to look in her element, and succeeded.

"What was that thing?" Casper asked, after a few more moments of uncomfortable silence. She was happy to let the trooper do all the probing for information, while she appeared the strong and silent leader.

"Oh, the Teedo?" Amid replied flippantly. "They're a hive-mind like race. No one really knows where they live. They're scavengers, not that they had much to scavenge before now. They're always itching for a fight if someone gets in the way of their loot. And if you do manage to kill one, you're marked by every other Teedo on this planet. Unless you have the skills or upper hand to properly negotiate with them, you let them to their loot and go on your way. I assume more rules will develop now that scavenging is lucritable."

So there's a scavenger race that only speaks its own tongue. She'll have to learn their language to properly handle them it seems. Another thing to put on her priority list, after finding new clothes and a source of income/food. Speaking of which-

"How do you survive here?" Malarus asked.

"My convent all work together to gather food from what we can find for ourselves and the remaining orphans under our care. Many beasts scamper across these sands and lichen can be found under rocks. We rarely have full bellies, for food is scarce and suffering brings you closer to the Force."

At least there was somethings Malarus could hunt, should the worst occur. But still, that assessment wasn't promising.

But Amid had more to say. "The aftermath of the battle will greatly change Jakku. For those more obsessed with material chains, you should be able to profit off of the scavenging market that should appear. Rumors say Niima has already begun a scrap market."

"Niima?" Casper asked. He clearly wasn't used to be able to ask questions freely, and seemed to be relishing in it.

"The Hutt who tries to rule this land. She lives in cave systems near the Carbon Ridge. She creates slaves to her will with torture and is worshiped like she is a goddess leading a cult. Stay away from her fortress or you will join their ranks. But if you come from a place of power, you may interact with her emissaries without too much fear for your life."

That was better. The two of them could be scrappers, and depending on exchange rates, they could maybe, eventually, save up enough for a ship off this hellhole.

After that, there were no more questions exchanged. The two of them simply followed in silence, with Amid walking stocically infront of them. It didn't take long for Casper to drop any semblance of military posture. Malarus remained straight as a rod, a silent sentinel planning her escape.

* * *

By the time they reached Cratertown, the sun had begun to set and cold seeped into her bones. Great, it was either deadly cold or deadly hot. None of that "sleep during the day and work at night" thing other desert planets had. But the cold seemed to be more dangerous than the heat, so she would have to remain on a diurnal sleep cycle, for now.

"I will return to my convent now," Amid stated, stopping at the edge of the town. "I suggest you find somewhere safe and warm to spend the night, not that those who are fortunate to have dwellings would be too willing to share." With that, he turned and began walking to the right, not even giving the former imperials a chance to thank him or ask more questions.

With their mysterious guide gone, Malarus could now take the lead again. With the sun setting, she saw people scurrying into the few sandstone buildings that stood around the town. But even more people were setting up ragged tents and a few fires dotted the landscape. Some people had nothing more than a box they could curl up in and hope for the best. "Stay on guard," Malarus ordered, "These savages would kill for a flask of water. We will do our best to stay in the background, but should a conflict arise, do not hesitate to kill. We must show we are as brutal- and stronger than everyone else."

Casper nodded, but Malarus could see the fear in his face. He'd never had to worry about his expressions before, since he was clad in white plastoid armor, no different from any other stormtrooper.

Carva led her traveling companion through the town, searching for an appropriate spot. She could feel the citizens' greedy and starving eyes staring at them. They wore what would be considered fine clothes, and even more strangely they were mostly clean. They saw Casper's blaster, not coated in sand and his full pack, filled with wonders they could only imagine.

The attack came from behind, but Malarus could hear the scrabbling over the sand. She took one moment to focus before turning around and firing. Then everything went silent, other than the crackling of fires. A dead Abednedo, only a child, she reckoned, lay crumpled on the sand with a smoking hole through his chest.

Malarus scanned the town, the anger from the kill filling her. Casper looked horrified, but his hand was near his blaster. Then she spoke, projecting her voice the best she could. "This will be your fate if any of you attempt to attack us again. We want nothing from you. Allow us to establish our camp in peace and no one else would die. Cross us, and you will share his fate." She motioned to the corpse in the sand beside her.

She knew she could have attempted to extort some pitiful tithe from the people watching, but she knew doing so would make her existence span style _their_ problem. She just didn't have the manpower or influence to rule over them. If anyone else would attempt to strike now, they would be alone, because it would be a reckless disregard for life, desperation, and greed. It wouldn't hurt them to just stay out of her way. And she only had so many charges in her blaster.

After her speech, the sounds of speaking and working returned, this time more hushed and anxious. Casper seemed to have relaxed, but he looked terrified.

"Did we have to do that?" he whispered.

"Yes," Malarus replied, the disdain clear in her voice, "He would have fought us to the death for our supplies. And with such a demonstration of power, we have already cemented ourselves as a deadly force, but not one that actively threatens them, for now. We do not have the strength to rule over such a mob, but they are less of a threat now."

"Okay," Casper said, but Malarus wasn't finished.

"You are not to question my orders. I may no longer be your superior, but I am the person with the tactical knowledge to keep us alive. If you continue to question me, I span _will_ throw you to these dogs."

Casper nodded, completely silent.

Malarus returned to look at the section of the town she had been surveying before the disruption. And there she found it, a spot that would suit her needs. Two small structures, made from a collection of stone and metal met at a corner. Incorporating such walls into their tent would make it so an attack could only come from the front, something setting up a watch would prevent.

"Set up the tent between those two buildings," Carva said to Casper, pointing the location she had selected out, "I assume that was in your academy training."

"Yes ma'am," Casper replied, obedient fear in his voice.

"Afterwards you may have one ration serving and half a water serving. I will take first watch to prevent us from being attacked in our sleep."

"Casper nodded and went to work. Malarus plan proceeded without disturbance, as a well fed person with a working blaster was sufficient deterrent to people who had rarely seen either.

The Abendo who Malarus had killed was soon stripped of anything valuable by those with camps nearest to him. No one bothered to remove the body once it had nothing more than a few scraps of worthless fabric left on it. Eventually, it was eaten by carrion-feeders and became another anonymous being who died on a dead planet.


	2. Chapter 2: Found

_AN: I_ _realize I may be playing kinda loose with the geography, but that's how I imagined the land around the Observatory and well, I couldn't really imgaine hidden base just on a plateau. Also, I may not have known what a plateau was until a few months ago, despite reading two separate books with plateaus as vital locations._

* * *

 _14 years after the Battle of Jakku- near the Plaintive Hand Plateau, Jakku_

* * *

"Cut the power here," Malarus ordered as she and Casper sped across the sands. They were on a heavily modified anti-grav pallet salvaged from a star destroyer. Attached to the back was a haphazard collection of controls and wires attached to some engines taken from a speeder. The engines were capable of allowing the anti-grav pallet to reach speeds close to that of the broken speeder they were designed for. Although it looked incredibly silly, it was effective for traveling across Jakku. Being dragged behind them was a net containing the supplies necessary for the full day of travel from Niima and the duo's U-wing home to their current location.

The pallet abruptly skidded to a halt, still floating a few inches above the sand after Casper cut the power. In the near decade and a half since Casper had Malarus had been stranded on Jakku, the ex-stormtrooper had taught himself a lot of technical skills while Malarus was still good at intimidation and haggling.

Malarus pulled her cracked binocs out from the folds of her clothes. Both scavengers wore the light colored long cotton outfits of desert dwellers, only weighed down with their gear. Every item they'd brought from the escape pod, barring the firestarter, lightsticks, and their original blasters had been traded, used up, or incorporated into something. Even Casper's blaster had an improvised bayonet attached to it so they didn't have to waste precious charges. Malarus' weapon had been welded from scrap metal, creating spear with an ax head on it.

The only memory of their old life was Malarus' rank insignia. She claimed she kept it because it was small and they might still find someone to buy it, but deep down she knew it was sentimentality.

She scanned the edge of the valley that formed next to the plateau. There was their quarry, a large blast door built into the wall of the plateau on the other side of the valley. It was some imperial research facility or personal vault of the Emperor. Niima the Hutt had been tasked with guarding it before the retreat, and no one wanted to risk her wrath to attempt to plunder it, in case the old deal still stood. But with the Hutt killed by some bounty hunter, the other Jakku born scavengers still refused to come near it. Claimed it was haunted or cursed or something. All that meant to Malarus was that its wealth was still there for the taking.

"Frag," Malarus swore. Nestled in the wall of the plateau where it flanked the valley was the gun of a turbolaser. A quick scan found other cannons, different levels of buried in the sand. From where they were positioned, any attempt to reach the vault through the valley would be suicide.

"What it is?" Casper asked from the back of the pallet, having finished properly shutting down the engines.

"Turbolasers, lining the walkway in," she replied before handing him the 'nocs to look for himself.

He took them and got off the pallet to get a good view. "I see them alright," Casper said as Carva got off on the other side. "But turbolasers are ground-to-air, and typically maned."

"You know the Empire didn't follow rules like that when they were here," Malarus retorted as she stretched her cramped legs.

"Good point," Casper agreed. Versio had kept a tight hold on his own ship, but after long trips planetside, a lot of troopers returned- changed.

"I say we check out one of them. See if it's automated or disabled. You could figure that out?"

"Should be able to," Casper tossed the 'nocs back to Malarus and she caught them, putting it away. "Of course if it's damaged, I can't be sure. Or even if damage to one would mean damage to the rest."

* * *

The two ex-imperials headed towards the neared turbolaser they could see. The short distance would make their grav-pallet too unwieldy, so they just properly disabled the grav feature to prevent theft and made sure to keep an eye on it.

On the way there, Casper tripped flat on his face over the buried tip of another turbo-laser. Malarus actually laughed. Back in the Empire, such a display would earn scorn and glances from both subordinates and superiors. Jakku had changed her, but not by much.

Using a flat shard of destroyer hull, Casper managed to pry open the back panel of the laser, confirming it was automated. There was no signal being received, meaning either the on/off switch had degraded, or it was disabled before the imperial retreat, for whatever reason.

The two of them then reactivated their ride and rode down the valley, eventually stopping at the end of the valley, where two large blast door stood half open. The pallet was then left deactivated hidden between some tall rocks.

* * *

The doors were halfway open, revealing a vault that was built into the side of the plateau. Sand had been blown in, but Casper could still see hints of intricate carvings on the doors. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he told Malarus as they were dwarfed by the doors.

"Don't tell me you believe the local superstitions too? The only thing in there is untouched loot- a good thing."

Casper swallowed his protests. She was right. She was being logical. And Malarus' pragmatism might get them off this planet.

They stepped into the vault and it almost immediately got cooler. A sloped hallway stretched out. Casper followed Malarus' lead, a position he was in frequently. It opened into a main room, with a hallway, a bit wider and still sloping downward.

The main attraction of the room was a series of computers. It wasn't in any style Casper recognized, from the Empire or earlier ships the sands sometimes uncovered. But it was a type of technology. Still followed the basic system. Had valuable parts. Above the computers projected a starmap. Casper didn't recognize the formations, but he never was quite good at navigation.

"All this protection for a computer bank?" Malarus scoffed.

"There are still more rooms in the vault. There might even be a manifest on the system. And a still functioning bank this large is still a good find."

"Fine," Malarus' voice was edged with steel. She normally wasn't this cold, but this wasn't part of the routine they'd come to expect. Maybe Malarus was expecting him to turn tail and run. He certainly wouldn't now.

Casper headed over to the nearest bank which had a small screen. Thankfully it was in Basic. The banks could have been much older relics for all he knew. "All it says is Finality- zero percent- canceled"

"What?" Malarus barked.

Casper clicked around on the system. "There's some other stuff on here, I'm not sure what any of it means. It all looks to be a bunch of different progress reports. The Finality has its own program, there's another for a bunch of different processes- that might be the closest to a manifest we got- but it's all in code names. And the last one is a bunch of coordinates. Like a really complicated navicomputer. I think that might go with the map. The records do say 'Defenses- disabled' which is good. I just don't want to start pressing random things in case we turn them back on."

"Alright. We'll just do things how we normally do. Check out what treasure is stored here, and barring that we can always loot the computers," Malarus responded. Casper was expecting her to snap at him, like she was back in the navy, but that burst of aggression seemed gone. They were back to how they normally did things.

* * *

Malarus walked towards the hallway. She knew she had pushed too hard. She believed Casper about the computer. He was more skilled with hardware and tech than programs because he'd learned everything off of what they found. It's just the chance to leave this hellhole was within reach, and Casper was backing down.

The hallway was barely wide enough to fit both of them. Each side had a row of pedestals, with a red-robed droid standing between each, deactivated and holding an electro-staff. There were six on one side, but only five on the right. Red lines, like veins, streaked through the black stone here as well. It was a macabre beauty so rarely seen on a planet that typically only held the former. No sand infused the titles of the floor this deep in.

Four items were missing from their pedestals, seemingly taken at random. Malarus reached for an item to her right, a tube of smooth metal. As her hand touched it, she braced, worrying something might response. Nothing did. Casper was right, there were no defenses.

She quickly found a button on the side. Sensing it might be a weapon, she pointed it towards the other end of the hallway, in case some blast of energy might shoot out.

A deep orange blade appeared, as if it was pulled from an invisible sheath. This was a lightsaber, the weapon of the ancient Jedi. That made sense, Palpatine had exposed those weak-minded traitors and his own enforcer carried a red-bladed one.

"Woah," Casper let out, just as mesmerized as she had allowed herself to be. "What is that?"

"A lightsaber," Malarus replied as she turned it off, stowing it in her belt. "An ancient weapon, extremely rare and valuable. Even Unkar would be able to see the value in it."

Casper picked up the artifact closest to him. It was an orb made of different copper rings. A dull crystal floated in the middle "Any idea what this is?"

"No clue, but I'd take it. Some collector will want it, even if Unkar won't. I'm going to check the other rooms. You fill your pack with all these relics. Hopefully, the Emperor also kept a big box of credits in the other rooms."

Casper nodded. He was so weak-willed, Malarus didn't have to worry about him grabbing the loot, taking the pallet and ditching her. They'd probably end up spending the night in the Observatory as to not travel during the incredibly cold and dangerous night. They'd anticipated this, bringing their heater, blankets, and tent.

Gods be damned. This was the last room and the only thing in it was a giant pit! Tentatively leaning over the edge, there seemed to be no bottom. This super secret well-protected vault just had some obscure treasures, some computer, and a kriffing hole!

Oh, there was the skeleton, wearing a tattered red cape and white admiral's uniform. Wait, wasn't that Councilor Rax? Well, that made sense. News of his death had probably been what triggered the sudden retreat of most of the remaining capital ships. The question was, who killed him? Malarus didn't care enough to find out.

"Hey Malarus," Casper called down, more uncertain than normal, "You should probably see this."

Realizing this weird circular room had nothing to provide her, Malarus headed back up to the relic hallway to see what Casper was making a big deal about.

She found Casper standing in a room that branched off from the hallway. The secret door he found must have been why there were only 5 pillars on the left side of the corridor.

Malarus joined Casper in the room, expecting a vault of much more valuable items, maybe more lightsabers or even just credits. Instead, it was a sterile white medical facility. On the far side was a block of carbonite holding- a small human girl.

"Well, this certainly is- something," Malarus replied as the two of them stepped fully into the room. Rather than the kinda gloomy ambient lighting in the rest of the vault, the lights here were harsh and white, as if they'd stepped into a hospital on a core world.

Scanning the room, Malarus also saw what looked like an empty bacta pod, too small for a full grown human, connected to an excessive amount of medical equipment. A deactivated caretaker droid, the kind core-worlders would own to tend to their infants stood in the other corner.

"We should probably let her out," Casper said, although his tone implied it was a question.

"What? Oh, the girl. Yeah, we should probably do that."

* * *

She had known nothing before now. Scraps of memory floated up, warmth then cold, then pain and cold. Pain was the first thing she had known. Rage, anger, and hate had sculpted her. Formed her from nothingness. But she didn't understand that. Words and meaning had come to her, implanted in her mind, she could not say how. Nor did she understand how little she had experienced.

And now a new experience had occurred. A hiss and warmth. Not the warmth of what she had first known, but warmer than the cold-pain that had trapped her. She was restrained by nothing and collapsed. But this was different. Someone was there. She could not see, she never could, but shortly would be able to.

Yet she could feel them. Like a beacon blazing in a dark world, one that offers safety and kindness. And there is another presence. One that is like a pillar of ice, that burns with their own cold fire.

So she clutched the friendly one, desperate for another, as all sentients were.

* * *

Casper stared down at the girl who had tumbled from the carbonite slab. He'd managed to catch her before she hit the floor and now she clutched at his sleeves. She wore a rough cotton dress like a hospital gown and her brown hair cascaded down her shoulders. She looked to be about four.

He positioned the girl so that she was seated with her back up against the now open chamber as he attempted to crouch and reach her height. Her eyes were watering, from pain, fear, or a long-term effect of the freezing process, Casper didn't know.

"Do you know how you ended up in there?" Casper asked, trying to sound parental.

The girl shook her head. She seemed to have some understanding of language.

"Do you remember anything before you ended up in there?"

"A little."

"Like what?"

"Feelings. Like warmth….anger." Well, that didn't help.

"Can you see?"

A nod. "More now. At first, I could just see you two. Now I can see the room."

"Can you walk?"

Tentatively the girl stood up, holding her hands out for balance. It was wobbly and Casper was ready to catch her if she fell, but she managed to walk forward a few steps.

Malarus had stood motionless in the corner of the room the entire time, her arms folded and watching with her usual cynical eye. "So what are we going to do now?" she asked.

Casper doubted Malarus was actually asking his advice. Maybe she was still considering things, but this part was most likely a test. "Well, this child here seems to be the true treasure- not sure what her deal is. But we still have the computers and the droids to scavenge. Not to mention the artifacts. I say we spend the rest of the day and night here taking everything apart."

"Sounds reasonable," Malarus said, nodding.

* * *

And so they got to work. This was what they were used to. There were no fights, just taking the items apart. Casper couldn't recognize the models of the parts on either the red-robed droids or the computers, but he could tell what they were.

The child was also helpful. Her tiny hands could separate parts with less fear of damaging them. And she was eager to learn. So as he handed each piece to the girl, Casper explained what it was and what purpose it served. Every now and then he'd use a word she didn't understand, but a quick definition smoothed everything out.

After cutting the thick semi-armored cloth off the droids, the scavengers found it was also made of parts as enigmatic as the computers. But they were disassembled for everything beyond the frame. Casper also took what he could understand from the machines in the girl's room and after failing to activate the caretaker droid, unassembled that as well.

When they finished and the chill of night began to reach them, both Casper's and Malarus' packs were filled to the brim with carefully organized and undamaged parts. They had even brought in the net that went with the pallet and filled that as well.

So they made camp. The heater was brought out and activated, and the tent was set up. Although at first Malarus resisted, Casper managed to convince her to prepare one of their extra portions for the girl.

* * *

The three of them sat around the heater as if it was a campfire. Malarus was watching the portions activate, while Casper braided the child's hair with spare pieces of rope and wire. After her hair had been caught in a calculation matrix, he promised the girl he'd braid her hair after they finished working. He'd also used a scrap of leather to tie her gown at the waist, allowing for more movement.

"That's an interesting style," Malarus said, suddenly breaking the silence.

"Huh?" Casper replied.

"The braids," she motioned to what he was doing with the empty portion pack she was holding.

"Oh yeah. They're traditional Vardosan braids. People don't really wear them anymore, but my family was there before the Empire, so I grew up learning it. There's a different version some people use that follow imperial regulations, but this is the one I'd used to do for my younger sister."

"You have a sister?" Malarus seemed legitimately surprised which made sense. They'd known each other for over a decade, but their pasts had never been discussed before. Casper didn't think he even knew Malarus' home planet.

"Yeah, back on Vardos. She was five when I left for the academy." He did some quick math in his head. "Oh, she's 23 now. Wow." He didn't know what to do with that information.

"You get along with your family?"

"Yeah pretty well. My parents were a bit more resistant to Versio and the Empire than most, but never enough to bother anyone. I suppose being human helped. Our shop got seized by the Empire, so I had to go to the academy to send home some money." Casper didn't want to think of what happened after he was stranded on Jakku. Or even after Endor, when personal holos were banned for anyone less than a captain.

"That's nice." An unusual melancholy settled over the two adults. They'd rarely thought of their lives before Jakku and never before the navy.

"What are parents?" The girl asked, breaking the heavy silence.

Casper got back to work on the finishing touches of her braids as he answered. "Well, I suppose they're the people who made you and raise you. Usually, it's a mom- that's a parent who's a woman- and a dad- that's a parent who's a man. But if you're non-human, it might be different. Or if your parents die, you might be adopted by adults who aren't related to you, but love you. Or you could be raised by another family member. A sibling- like a brother or a sister, are people who your parents also raised."

"Do you know who my parents are?"

"Sorry, no."

"Could you be my parents? You're a man and Malarus is a woman."

Casper could see Malarus glare. "Well no- it's complicated."

"Okay," the girl replied, seemingly satisfied with such an answer, and dropping the subject.

After finishing the girl's braids, Malarus handed the other two their portions and the child got off Casper's lap so they both could eat. Casper made sure to show the child how to make sure to leave barely any crumbs and get the most out of food, especially how to eat slowly and not upset your mostly empty stomach. Afterwards, the child complained that she was tired, so Casper got her set up in the corner their tent on top of the pile of thick blankets they used as bedding. Explaining that adults need less sleep than children, he went back to Malarus. They needed to talk.

Casper put his face in his hands. "What are we going to do with her?"

"What do you mean?" Malarus said, unconcerned as she dropped the packets into the heater.

"Jakku's no place to raise a child and-"

"We're not staying on Jakku. We have enough loot to get a ship off-planet."

"And the girl?"

"She can come with. Some extra hands would be nice. And two spacers with a child can attract more charity than without."

Casper brought his head up. Something about that answer did sound right, but he couldn't say what. And he still couldn't comprehend that getting off Jakku was within arms reach.

"Do you think she's like the Emperor's daughter or something?" Casper asked.

"If that's the case, not sure why he'd keep her all locked up like that." Malarus fidgeted with something in her hand Casper couldn't see. "She clearly didn't age while she was in there. And if he had an heir, why not flaunt them? That would give their rule legitimacy and keep the Empire live for more than a generation."

Malarus paused for a moment, before slipping the thing in her hand back into her clothes and continuing. "Although I did see what looked like Counselor Rax's skeleton in the other room. Maybe he was trying to get her- no that wouldn't add up. We'd been on Jakku for months before the battle. None of that really matters anyway."

"Yeah, I guess. It's just- it feels like we're messing with something big. Something we shouldn't."

"You're not making any sense. It's late and you're tired. Toss me a blanket out here when you go in. I'm worried I'll roll over and crush the kid."

Casper nodded and went over to the tent, leaving his gun and heavier equipment outside. He did toss out one of their blankets. The tent was pretty small, and when they had to share it early on, it was pretty intimate. Not that there had ever been any ideas of romantic involvement between them. In some way, Malarus was still his commanding officer. Back in the U-Wing, the tent was used to block the door and they slept on the blankets.

When he entered the tent, the girl was already sleeping curled up in a corner. It was very peaceful. Doing his best not to disturb her, he laid down on the other side. He could believe this could be his last night on Jakku.

* * *

Casper, Malarus, and the girl set off as the first beams of harsh sunlight shown through the vault's doors. They gathered their supplies and stopped first at their U-Wing home.

During the ride, the child marveled at everything they passed. It had been a long time since the half-sunken corpse of the _Ravager_ was nothing more than a mundane landmark. As they rode, Casper gave the quickest, most child-friendly version of how the ships ended up there he could. Malarus rode in silence, her permanent scowl slightly angrier than usual.

Once they stopped at their home, Casper and Malarus gathered everything small enough to transport. Items like the lightsticks that they needed on Jakku could now be traded. They also packed all their remaining portions. Trading for more would work against affording a ship. They also organized their salvage to be more presentable. Thankfully no cleaning was necessary. If they (Malarus) played their cards right, they wouldn't need to trade the artifacts, things that would sell for more money- real credits- off world with a collector.

* * *

Their entrance into Niima Outpost turned heads. That would have been the case if it had just been them and the girl. No one under ten was ever seen outside of the anchorites' orphanage. But they came laden with salvage, more than any scavenge had ever brought in during a single haul. Casper simply drawing his rifle and Malarus' reputation scared the other scavengers away from the table they approached. Malarus placed the folded up blanket on the table, and it unfurled, exposing the droid and computer parts they had.

"Tell Unkar I have a proposition for him," Malarus ordered. She had adopted a more typical core world imperial accent. Different from the half-core half-outer rim accent she'd developed on Jakku. After a few minutes of some onlookers, presumably muscle for Unkar, heading towards the shop, the lumbering non-human emerged. This would be their normal routine. Malarus would haggle while Casper stood guard, holding his rifle as if he was still a trooper.

"Want do you want?" Unkar demanded, but the greed in his eyes was obvious when he saw their haul.

"A ship, with a working hyperdrive, navicomputer, and enough fuel to get us out of the sector."

Without saying anything, Unkar looked closer at their haul. Malarus permitted him to pick up a few and inspect them.

"No," The gasps from the onlookers were audible. This was a spectacle to them, and one of the best they'd ever seen.

"You bring me non-standard computer and droid parts and expected a ship?" Unkar laughed tauntingly.

"These pieces are in perfect condition. They would be worth more than we're asking if we weren't on Jakku."

"But you're here. I can give you two thousand portions." That would keep them fed for almost two years, even accounting for the extra mouth to feed. And make them the biggest target in all of Jakku.

Luckily they still had another card up their sleeve. Malarus moved down the table and started to unload the relics from her pack. All seven items were there, except for the lightsaber.

"Some trinkets?" Unkar asked, looking over the relics.

"These 'trinkets' were taken from the imperial vault near the Plaintive Hand. The one Niima the Hutt was guarding, remember?"

"All I see is a weird orb, a red triangle, some figurines, and a stone with a pretty picture on it. No one would want to buy that."

"What about this?" Malarus retorted as she pulled the lightsaber from her belt, activating it and holding it up high for all to see. For show, she moved it around to produce the satisfying swish-swish noise.

"Still not good enough. I can give you five hundred portions for the laser-sword, but you're going to have to throw something else in to get a ship," Unkar's arms were folded across his chest.

Malarus deactivated the lightsaber, placing it on the table. This wasn't good. They'd included all the possessions they could spare with the first batch of items.

"That's extortion! This is ridiclous. Has anyone else ever brought you a lightsaber?" Casper was all fired up now.

"Listen here kid-" Unkar threatened.

"Would the child be enough?" Malarus asked, still seeming calm.

Unkar looked back, and then near Casper's leg, as if he'd just noticed the girl. "I suppose so. I do need someone to keep track of my inventory."

"Carva, you can't do this!" Using Malarus' first name was a sign this was serious. Casper had only ever called her that once before, which is another story involving Teedos, a Mirilan, and a rope.

In as fast as humanly possible, Malarus was right in front of Casper, her height advantage plain. The deactivated lightsaber was pointing at his gut. All she had to do was turn it on and he'd be dead.

"This is my- our chance to get off this hellhole," Malarus snarled, "I will not allow you to ruin it. Will you really sacrifice yourself for a moral high ground and a girl you just met? You dying won't save her. I'll still sell her off and have one less mouth to feed."

Casper was scared. But Malarus' points, as always, were pragmatic and logical. He didn't want to consign the child to slavery, but in all truth, he was a coward. Later Casper would realize that yielding here was the biggest mistake of his life.

"I understand." That was all he could say.

"Good," Malarus turned back to Unkar, "So you'll give us a ship with the parameters I outlined? Functional hyperdrive, navicomputer, and the fuel to get us out of this sector?"

"Yes," Unkar was already greedily scooping up the blanket with the parts on it. Knowing scamming Plutt was impossible, Malarus placed the lightsaber with the rest of the relics.

"What's the girl's name?"

"Rae," Malarus answered, as if she already had this part planned. Rae Sloane was the former Grand Admiral Veriso served under until her capture and death at the hands of the New Republic. It was an odd name to choose, but it could easily have just been the first one that popped into her head.

"Second ship on the right is yours now," Unkar said, roughly grabbing the girl- Casper supposed her name was Rae now, by her arm. Instantly she started struggling, trying to get back to Casper. He couldn't bring himself to do anything.

As Rae cried for them to stop or come back, Malarus stalked over to their new ship, her head held high. She was actually smiling. Casper followed, shoving all his guilt and regret into a small box in his heart. He was empty, but that was what allowed him to follow Malarus to the ship without even looking back.

* * *

The girl, her name now Rae, though she would grow up believing it was Rey, had seen much in what was her first proper day. As she looked across the sands, she knew that was she saw was a desert, a place called Jakku. And it was a bad place, somewhere that people named Casper and Malarus wanted to leave. She had only the vaguest concept that there were other lands in the stars. And no idea there was anywhere that wasn't covered in sand.

When they met the large being, Unkar, she could see that he was an abyss that would suck in everything around him and still not be satisfied. She hated him before he said a word. And as he denied them the ship, and scoffed and items anyone should be able to see the value of, her hate only grew.

But when the conversation turned to her, she could feel the turning point approach. She understood she would be a pawn sacrificed for Malarus' designs.

She was no pawn.

When Malarus threatened Casper, Rey imagined striking down both Malarus and Unkar. She felt she could do it, but she didn't know how. And that failing allowed Unkar to grab her and those who had freed her to leave.

But as Casper left, she knew something. It was a clear as if he spoke it. The same way she knew that two beings greeted her when she emerged. He would come back.

And as Rey grew up and forgot this day, she remembered that. It became what kept her on Jakku, kept her alive, gave her hope.

He would come back.

They would come back.

Her parents would come back.

* * *

 _AN: So, this chapter hints at a few ideas that wouldn't make sense in the POV or slow down the story (like the contents of the vault, Malarus' backstory, or the exact mechanisms that created Rey) that I have a few ideas about. If you're intrigued by those things, I'll be happy to expand on them in the comments._


	3. Chapter 3: A Purpose

_Shortly after Rey was sold to Unkar Plutt- The_ Steelheart _, Jakku's orbit_

The ship, a small shuttle, floated in the space above Jakku. It was a small, very fat, triangular ship. The main area, a hold, combined with a cockpit was about the size of a U-wing. Other than that, it had two small rooms branching off it. One barely fit a single bunk and the other had a refresher Malarus wasn't sure worked.

Casper had slumped down in the co-pilot seat, still thinking of that stupid girl. While Malarus was at the controls, her eyes drinking in the stars. She hadn't seen their true glory in so long. The black expanse of space, with no atmosphere to block out their light. She supposed stars were one of the few things she was sentimental about, since she didn't see them growing up.

But now was not the time to be sentimental. They were finally free. And the fool beside her didn't realize that she had saved him. But she didn't know where to go. It had been so long. She didn't know what planets could give some spacers work. If they were part of the Republic or anything. All she knew was that the Republic still stood, and even that information could have been inaccurate.

Malarus checked the navicomputer. It had been last updated 20 years before. That wouldn't help them at all. And she had no idea which planets would welcome them.

"Could we reach Vardos?" Malarus was surprised to hear Casper speak.

"Your home planet?" She hoped thinking of his past had not made him completely stupid.

"If any planet would welcome ex-imperials, it's there. It's also a city planet. If it's all for the Republic now, then we could still easily find work and information to choose a better one."

Malarus didn't say anything, but she did search for Vardos in the navicomputer records, to see if they could even get there.

"Also- I know this might be stupid," Casper continued, "But my family might still be on planet- if they're even still alive. We might not even have to find work at first, they could take us in, let us get our bearings."

That was a good point. And their fuel supply was enough to get them to Vardos, and then a few nearby planets after that. Malarus had heard whispers of some secret mission the _Eviscerator_ had on Vardos, and rumors that the place had been destroyed somehow. But there was never a definite story, and it was before her time on the ship. Casper seemed to have no knowledge of it. And in a decade and a half, the planet easily could have recovered.

"Setting course for Vardos," Malarus said. She wouldn't even look the coward in the eye. The first time she thought he might actually have principles, regardless of how foolish they were, he backed down.

And there it was, the beautiful lines of hyperspace. Oh, how she missed them. The bending of space-time to allow faster than light travel. It was like magic. The navicomputer said they still had two hours until they reached the Jinata system and would be just out of Vardos' orbit.

After launching into hyperspace, Casper set his head down on an empty section of the dashboard, looking dejected. Malarus could only imagine the kind of moral turmoil going through his mind. She also suspected that said empty space existed because certain features of the ship had been removed and a blank piece of metal was hastily installed to cover it up. She didn't know what model of ship this was, and even then, it had probably been downgraded by Unkar. It would be best to figure out what functions the ship had. After that, she'd probably plan a list of possible jobs they could take and the best way to market their skills. Also how to ask "What the kriff has happened since the battle of Jakku?" without being thought of as insane.

* * *

It turned out they didn't need any of those things.

As soon as they exited hyperspace, they were met by an escort frigate, the kind rebels typically used, repainted unknown colors. Flying around it were a few clone war-era ARC starfighters. Malarus briefly wondered if they had somehow traveled back in time, but stopped when she saw the ship was hailing them. Casper broke out of his stupor and looked at the flashing com. Malarus opened the channel. "Attention unidentified shuttle, this is Leema Kai of the _Opportunity_. You are trespassing in the Jinata System, under the sovereign rule of Tonqua Gleb. In accordance with the Republic-Jinata treaty, your ship, cargo, and lives are now forfeit. If you resist, you will be destroyed,"

Casper and Malarus locked eyes. This wasn't in the plan at all. Malarus' inspection of the ship had revealed the weapons systems had been removed, and even with them, she doubted she could have fought or out-flew the ships.

" _Opportunity_ , this the _Steelheart_ , " Malarus said, trying to stall for time, "I would like a minute to speak with my crew before deciding if we will allow boarding." This would make sense. Being captured by whomever this was could be worse than a quick death.

There was silence on the other end of the com for a bit. It was clear that Kai was more used to people begging for their lives. "Very well _Steelheart_ , you may have two minutes before we hail you for the last time."

Malarus silenced the com. She was very surprised when, almost instantly, Casper started talking.

"I know Gleb. She was the headmistress at the Academy here. She was the most loyal imperial I knew. I swear it wasn't for show. If she is in charge of the Jinata system, this is an imperial hold out in all but name."

Malarus nodded. Now she had a plan forming. "So we flaunt our former ranks, tell the truth, and get an audience. Except now we've always been loyal members of the Empire."

She turned back to the com and opened the channel again. "Kai, this is Imperial Ensign Carva Malarus- EB-7863. My co-pilot is a Casper Guffin, stormtrooper. Operating number-"

Kriff. She didn't remember. She knew it was LT. And then a 6? Maybe a 4? It was definitely three digits. Casper half mouthed-half whispered "LT-621," after noticing her confusion, quiet enough so that the com's mic wouldn't pick it up.

"-LT-621. We were stationed on the Eviscerator under Admiral Garrick Versio. We were stranded on Jakku after the battle there. We've only just been able to get off planet. We request an audience with Gleb."

Malarus could tell Kai wasn't used to the ships he caught making demands like that. "Do you have any proof?" the captain demanded after a minute of good hard thinking.

"I have my old rank plague and a modified E-11 rifle," she paused. Of course, that proof wouldn't be enough. "I'm sure Gleb would be more willing to forgive you bringing us to her and finding out we lied and wasting her time than she would forgive you disposing of imperials- one who trained at her school no less." If Gleb was still running a mini-empire out here, her punishments for either would be harsh. She prayed Gleb was the kind who cared more about real incompetence than being bothered.

A very tense uncomfortable silence followed, in witch Malarus assumed the captain was comming Gleb. "Very well," Kai replied after a break,"you got your audience. But if you mess this up, your fate will be worse than what normally happens to you fools. We're moving to connect with you now."

"Understood," Malarus then shut off comm as the lumbering frigate approached them.

"Uh, Malarus," Casper said, "I didn't go to Gleb's school, just so you know."

She glared. "What do you mean? I thought you're from Vardos,"

"Well-" At least Casper's voice still had that nervous ring to it. He seemed to have gotten over the melancholy of leaving and now was his usual jittery self. "I am. It's just, Gleb runs the Future Imperial Leaders Academy. Well technically, she is the headmistress of the stormtrooper academy too, but I've only seen her once, when we got our specializations handed out. So don't think I have any favors with her. She probably doesn't even remember me."

Great. Kai probably assumed she was the one Glebb trained, since she was on the officer track before being pulled out of the Academy early.

Before she could respond, the ship shuttered as it connected to the frigate's airlock. "Remember," she whispered to Casper, "Proper protocol. Stay silent and stand at attention."

Malarus walked over to the airlock, but before opening it, she took out her scratched rank plague and pinned it to her clothes. Casper followed a few paces behind her, his rifle held at attention. Once she was sure the plague was properly attached, she pressed the button to open the door.

Past the connecting tube stood a formation of troops. Malarus half expected to see Imperial grays and stormtroopers, but it was just the colors of the local security force. The man standing in the middle, she assumed he was Kai, was so smug and despicable, it looked like he had walked out of a rebellion propaganda holo.

With proper imperial posture, her hands behind her back, Malarus marched over to Kai, meeting his steely gaze with her own. Casper walked behind her to the side, as if she was a general or moff who just disembarked a shuttle and he was part of her stormtrooper escort, rather than a dirty desert rat coming off the junk pile Unkar sold them.

"Your weapons, please," Kai demanded, clearly not intimidated. Malarus nodded to Casper to comply as she handed her ax-staff and snub-blaster to the soldier who approached her.

"I assume you will take us to Gleb now?" Malarus said in a crisp core-accent, "Unless you would be willing to provide us with a chance to freshen up and a change of clothes."

"No. You and your pet will be taking a transport planetside now. And don't try anything," Kai threatened, "or you'll wish we blown your ship to dust instead."

"Will you be joining us?" Malarus replied, as if they were discussing a factory inspection, rather than a meeting that would decide if they'd ever see any sunrise on another planet again.

Kai laughed. "I'm not a fool, even if you think you're playing me for one. And good news, one of our benefactors," he filled that word with so much disdain, Malarus wondered what the true arrangement was. "Is in a meeting with Gleb. They've both agreed to give you an audience. And this one has more of a temper than Gleb. I might not even get to see you suffer."

Malarus nodded, her face unchanging.

"Sergeant Teran," Kai barked to one of the soldiers, who then came forward. "Take your squad and bring our guests planetside." Teran's eyes went wide. She realized she was now the messenger. And well, you know how the saying goes.

Kai then turned and went in what was probably the direction of the bridge. Every soldier, except for eight others, not counting the sergeant,(it seemed a squad meant the same amount of troops as in the empire), dispersed, a few following Kai. This included the ones who had taken their weapons. They'd probably be incinerated, but considering how old everyone's tech was, sector security might keep the blasters.

"Transport A7," Teran said, having regained her composure. The girl was young, probably no older than 19. But her squad followed her orders and began prepping the modified transport that sat in the docking bay. Malarus was glad no one had walked up with binders.

When the transport was ready and they followed the security forces on board, Malarus was glad Casper's posture hadn't wavered, even if he didn't have a bucket to hide his expressions anymore. The fear and worry were obvious. They weren't permitted to sit next to each other and instead had a solemn guard next to them. Neither attempted conversation, with each other or the guard. Malarus was glad. Who knew what ears were listening, electronic or otherwise.

* * *

The transport touched down across from a tall building. At first, she thought it had been built to a ridiculous height, but then she realized it was one of the few buildings in this city planet that weren't damaged in some way. They'd seen a few patched-up building on the way in, but most were empty shells. This one was restored to the glory she assumed it had during the Empire. Blue banners of some four-eyed symbol adorned the taller buildings, while the scattered corpses of AT-ATs or TIEs littered the streets. A light, almost picturesque, dusting of snow covered the whole abandoned city.

They disembarked and Teran led the way towards the building, down a street with a toppled statue. Casper and Malarus finally were permitted to stand near each other, with the two guards on each side, thankfully out of earshot if they whispered. Both prisoners, because truly that's what they were, kept the brisk pace and held their heads high.

"This isn't right," Casper whispered as they walked.

Malarus raised an eyebrow, her face a mask of stern imperial features, while confusion and horror spread across Casper's.

"The snow. Vardos doesn't have snow, except for maybe at the poles. But we're not there. I recognize the building- that's Glebb's school. And the statue, that's Versio's. And the buildings, the destruction..."

"New Republic bombing run?" Malarus suggested. Vardos was a paragon of imperial values and loyalty. Devastating it would show the legacy of the Empire was swept away. And she didn't believe in the Republic's claims of moral superiority. Killing civilians and leaving a planet to rot, she wouldn't put it past them.

"That doesn't explain the snow. And wouldn't there be downed Republic ships as well? Some would have been shot down. And it doesn't make sense why only they'd be cleared away. And why is the school still standing? And how does JSec have all those ships? I've heard stories of planets that lost hyperspace, failed colonies. This is what I'd imagine them as."

"Maybe the 'benefactors' the good captain mentioned have different priorities than fixing the planet."

Casper nodded. She could tell how affected he was. At least he wasn't crying.

* * *

Sergeant Teran stopped and turned to face Malarus and Casper at the start of the stairs. "Now remember, you are to be respectful as you speak with Gleb and the rep-"

Malarus cut the girl off. "I know imperial protocol. Unlike you, I actually served in the Empire."

"Very well," Teran replied, bristling at the insult, as she continued her march up the steps.

* * *

The doors to the Academy opened to reveal an Aqualish in fancy clothing. "Gleb, these are the ex-imperials who wished to speak with you," Teran said. This was Gleb? Malarus was more surprised than disgusted. Her dislike for non-humans was much less than some of her fellow imperial, even if there were a few species who she automatically assumed their members were weak (Twi'leks and Wookies for example). She didn't have much of an opinion regarding Aqualish. But the fact an alien had risen so high in the Empire automatically proved they had enough ambition and cleverness to gain her respect.

Gleb nodded, so Teran stepped aside and allowed Malarus and Casper to approach her boss. But before Gleb could say anything, footsteps announced the approach of another being. It was an older human man, wearing none other than what looked to be an imperial uniform, minus a few minor stylistic changes.

"So Protectorate Gleb," the man said, "these are the people who convinced Kai they were important enough to bother you with?" Protectorate? Kai said that Jinata was sovereign. Well unless that's only what it said in the records, and the benefactors disagreed.

"I believe," Glebb began, a translator layering her words in Basic over her native garble. "that these former imperials may be of use to your- organization,"

The man hmmed and stepped closer to Casper and Malarus, looking them over. "I suppose so. And they claim that they've been stuck on Jakku since the battle?"

"Yes, sir," Malarus confirmed, "we have only been vaguely aware of the wider galaxy. I know the New Republic still rules, but we were not aware of Vardos' situation."

"Their navicomputer hasn't been off Jakku in years," Gleb stated, "I do not think they are spies, Hask." Hask? Now that was interesting. Gideon Hask was the only member of Inferno Squad, Versio's special intelligence unit, that didn't defect. And now he was part of what she assumed was the true imperial holdout.

"And your names?" Hask asked.

"Ensign Carva Malarus. And my companion is LT-621. We both served on the _Eviscerator._ "

"Did you work together before Jakku?"

"No sir," Malarus said, "we met on the escape pod. I was a sensors officer and he was a stormtrooper. However, we did survive on Jakku together."

"You called your companion by his operating number, why is that? I doubt you used it on Jakku."

"Protocol. You seem to be an imperial. Even if the organization you represent is simply the Empire's successor, I assume it is still protocol to refer to combatants purely by their operating numbers. We sacrificed protocol for efficiency during our exile, however my tactical and conversation capabilities resulted in me leading."

Hask nodded. He seemed pleased. "Do you agree with Malarus' assessment LT-621?"

"Ye-yes sir," Casper stammered.

"You said one of you were taught by Gleb?" Despite the question being addressed to both companions, Hask was clearly looking at Malarus. Although Casper lacked the armor, he was as faceless and voiceless as a stormtrooper to Hask.

"That was a misunderstanding of how the academy on Vardos works on my part sir," Malarus replied, "I knew LT-621 was from Vardos. He said that Gleb was the headmaster of the imperial academy here. I was not aware she did not personally oversee the stormtrooper academy."

"And why did you come to Vardos first?"

"Ca- LT-621 informed me that Vardos was the most likely planet to be sympathetic to former imperials. City planets are also good places to find work."

"And what do you make of the state of Vardos?"

Now this was the final test. Time to lie and hope the protegee of an ISB officer wouldn't notice. "I am glad your organization is helping Vardos rebuild after it was devastated and abandoned by the New Republic," Malarus suspected the bombing run story she offered earlier wasn't the entire truth, especially with all the rumors surrounding Vardos during her time under Veriso. And the rebuilding wasn't truly for the people of Vardos, that was clear. It was a piece in a much larger game. That didn't bother her, but she felt it was best to play it safe. Accepting the cover story and not applauding the true ruthlessness you figured out didn't help you early on in the Empire.

"The fact such an isolationist treaty was approved by the New Republic," Malarus continued, "reveals their weakness. If they simply wished to shun and punish Vardos, they would not have allowed you to seize ships so freely. They should not have allowed Vardos' sector security to grow so strong, for fear of imperial resurgence. But even with the ship's your organization can spare for Jinata's defense, a concentrated attack could easily overwhelm Vardos. They neither punish you, nor attempt to assist you. All of these are symptoms of a weak galactic government, one that neither lives up to the promises of rebel propaganda nor rules effectively. Chaos and corruption must be a disease eating at the edges of the galaxy." She prayed she said the right things, showing her loyalty to an imperial regime and her cleverness. Her opinion on the New Republic was her own, although reworded to serve a purpose. Her pragmatism was balanced by her pride. She would never follow someone weak and foolish. If Mon Mothma herself appeared and offered her a well paying job, a pardon from all crimes, so long as she worked for the New Republic, Malarus would refuse.

Hask turned to Casper. "LT-621, your opinion?"

Although she knew it was useless, Malarus tried to mentally send Casper the message of "Don't say anything stupid." He could blow this for her and get them sentenced to what normally happened to spacers who stumbled into Jinata, or even the punishment Kai promised.

"I'm not good with words, but I agree with Malarus. I'm also-" Casper was trying to find the right word. Malarus hoped he found a good one. "-angry at the New Republic for devastating my homeplanet. I wish to help in their downfall."

That was...actually a pretty smart thing to say. Malarus knew Casper well enough to know it was a lie. She knew those kinds of people. There were thousands of them. They were along for the ride of whatever regime was in charge when they came of age. And they weren't even cold-blooded enough to realize that. If he was around after Jakku, he wouldn't have defected to save his skin, just quietly accept whatever punishment was dolled out. And a little push, like their economic situation, was enough to make them a nice little cog in the war machine. And even without it, they would remain a loyal citizen. Every regime was built on their backs. You didn't even need practically good propaganda.

"I do believe my organization-" Hask paused. Malarus suspected he was about to reveal its name, but then he realized Teran and her JSec squad were still in the room. "Can make use of you. But Gleb, there were many ways this could have gone wrong. You and everyone on this planet were lucky it didn't. I never want a situation like this again."

Glebb nodded. "I will inform Captain Kai to not consider similar requests in the future. Do you recommend punishment?"

"He followed protocol well, a reprimand will be sufficient. Both for considering the request and not personally escorting the two. I suggest you also keep an eye on the squad he did send down, make sure they don't gossip." Malarus smiled internally. The squad clearly being able to overhear it served as a warning to both Gleb and them.

"And you will be departing soon? I wish to speak with Kai personally,"

"I have attended to all I needed to. My own forces will oversee my safety during the transfer. And giving them a change of clothes for the trip would be pointless."

"Very well," Glebb shuffled towards the JSec forces. "Sergeant-"

"Teran ma'am," the girl replied. Her fidgeting hands proved JSec discipline wasn't quite at the imperial level.

"You will escort me to your transport. And com ahead to tell Kai I wish to speak with him and that your squad is to be scrambled into different units and you are to receive a new command. Do not inform him of anything that transpired here, I will in due time. I hope you understand the gravity of this situation."

"Yes ma'am," As Teran's silent unit formed up and escorted Gleb out of the building, Malarus was aware of Casper moving closer to her.

* * *

Casper and Malarus did not exchange any words as they followed Hask. Casper's head was reeling. He suspected Malarus had pieced together many clues from their conversation, but she said nothing as they boarded the shuttle. It was imperial style, just not any specific model knew. The wings were ridiculously long/tall in his opinion. He was barely surprised to see stormtroopers, their helmets slightly different from what he was used to. His head just swam as he tried to make sense of the fast-paced conversation he just had. He was certain of one thing, there was an imperial remnant, large enough to "help" Vardos and produce their own equipment, that had remained undetected all this time. And now he was a member.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. At least he'd still have orders and a purpose. And hopefully go hungry less. But Vardos haunted his thoughts. It was ruined. And he knew no bomb could do that. Couldn't ruin the atmosphere and make snow fall. Malarus knew that too, she just said the right things. As did he. Yet no anger burned in him, against the New Republic, the Empire, or whoever had destroyed his planet. Just sorrow. The kind that left you empty and numb.

Casper thought of Shin'yah tree. Of how when it's red leaves fell into the pool it was planted by, the water ran red like blood. He knew the story. Of how a young girl, when she could not marry the one she loved, slit her wrists and bled out into the pond. The version his grandparents told him, when he was very young, said that the Force had seen the strength of the girl's commitment and transformed her into the first Shin'yah tree. That one detail was excluded under the Empire.

When Casper was 10, a Twi'lek friend named Riyu dared him to bring her a fallen Shin'yah leaf, one that had bled out. For an hour, he sat by her families' tree, ready to catch one. (His family didn't have the room to plant one. But he had overheard that his father had paid some of the tree's cost to protect Riyu's family from anti-alien sentiment). When the leaf finally fell, Casper almost joined it trying to grab it. Hands stained, he retrieved the leaf. Other than a few red droplets, the petal was a sickly brown and slightly see through. It was so thin and fragile compared to the full leaves on the tree and stuck to his fingers.

That was what Vardos was like now. It had bled out for its devotion to the Empire and a brown leaf, threatening to be torn apart by the very wind was all that remained.

But maybe Vardos had always been bleeding. Of course, the industrialization of Vardos didn't begin with the Empire, but it was certainly accelerated. Casper's grandparents would tell him tales of when Kesto was the only large city and the rest was mostly farmland. When the land-coral of Phillo still grew on Vardos near the seas. When they were more similar in dress and culture to their Nubian and Alderaanian cousins. Casper's parents barely remembered that time, but they still had complex braid symbolism and a few natural parks growing up. As much as all citizens liked to pretend they didn't, most adults remembered a time when Force worship was common and pilgrimage to Phillo was permitted.

But Casper couldn't mourn the loss of a planet he never knew, or curse the forces of industrialization and progress. Vardos under the Empire, before the war, seemed better. Those without food or shelter could work in factories regardless of their education. Orphans could get off the streets. Casper didn't think about the time, right after a large attack from the Free Ryloth movement, someone had broken Riyu's windows and painted "Go home savages" and "Die traitors" on her family's home. Or how similar attacks were common across species, and authorities seemed unconcerned.

Casper was so lost in thought, he almost did realize that the shuttle wasn't flying towards the Opportunity. Although the Jinata system connected to several different hyperlanes, it only did so at one site, witch they were going in the opposite direction of. Yet it still shuddered and jumped to hyperspace.

Well, undiscovered hyperspace lanes would explain how Hask's group had avoided detection for so long. Casper just hoped it was safe.

Malarus sat across from Casper in the passenger compartment. Four stormtroopers were in the room with them, although they were not permitted to sit down. The rest of the escort had taken other positions around the ship. Hask had left as soon as they were seated, but neither felt comfortable speaking.

Shortly after entering into hyperspace, another stormtrooper, holding two datapads entered the compartment. "These are for you to fill out," she said handing one to Malarus and the other to Casper. He accepted the datapad, which was already powered on, to find your usual intake form. He started typing away as the Sergeant (at least that's what Casper thought the all-white rank pauldron indication) continued.

"The forms will help with your assignments. Fill in any notes you have about your skills and abilities, even if you didn't pick them up from official sources. You'll still be tested on things you claim proficiency in. There are also some documents on galactic history after the Battle of Jakku and the standards of our organization. You'll probably have to train under Cardinal for a bit to get all caught up, but it will probably take less than a year."

"Wouldn't they be training under the new captain since they're older?" One of the stormtroopers asked. Casper could tell from the way their head jerked back after saying that and the Sergeant's head swung around, they were regretting saying that and the leader was glaring at them. Being a stormtrooper meant you picked up body language that didn't require facial expressions. It seemed like the new generation was the same.

"You don't have to treat us like officers," Malarus said without looking up from her form, "I doubt we'll have a higher rank than you for a while." That was a pretty good assumption. The troopers were probably put off, not knowing how to treat them. They were prisoners in a sense, but also guests, yet no one knew what their new ranks would be.

"She is right," the sergeant said, measured anger in her voice, "but that is no excuse to speak out of turn GX-375. I won't report this simply because it is minor, but do not question business that not do concern you in the future. I do not know if they will train under Phasma or Cardinal, especially if they only need a course on protocol. But that is not any of our calls to make. Unless the commander has a recommendation, it will be the duty of the assignment officers."

"I understand," Slight changes in their stance and voice told Casper than if GX wasn't in uniform, they'd be bowing their head and pulling their shoulders in.

"I will return later to collect the documents," the sergeant said, her anger having evaporated. "If you take your time to review the material, you should have enough to do until we exit hyperspace." With that, she turned on her heel and left the austere compartment.

Casper focused on the document more. It was mainly about his skills and training. He made sure to note his self-taught mechanical experience and Malarus' leadership skills. He let the dry histories and questions lull him into a trance with the rumble of hyperspace.

* * *

The ship dropped out of hyperspace when Casper was almost done with the last document. He looked out the window and was shocked to see two Star Destroyers, models not from the Imperial era floating, in this empty section of space. A few smaller ships were stationed around them. Hask's group was better equipped than Casper ever imagined. Even if this was their entire fleet, it spoke to their own shipyards and factories. He could even see some TIEs flying out to escort them.

One of the stormtroopers, Casper suspected it was GX-375, spoke, smugness in their voice.

"Welcome to the First Order."


	4. Chapter 4: Surviving

_3 years after Casper and Malarus joined the First Order- Nimma Outpost, Jakku_

Rey looked up from the scrap she was cataloging for Unkar's next off-world buyer to check the chrono lying on a shelf in the back of Unkar's "concession stand." It was a broken model, always 6 minutes slow, but it did the job. If any sane person actually wanted to buy it, it would have left Jakku long ago.

For as long as Rey could remember, she was Unkar's. He made it clear that her parents had sold her to get off Jakku. He wouldn't say anything more. Rey liked to imagine they had a very important reason to leave her behind, like saving the galaxy important. Some situation where bringing her with them would be worse than leaving her. Maybe they were rebel pilots, called to fight some great evil. Regardless of what her current picture of them was, she knew one thing, as inherently as she knew Basic. They were coming back. And that's why she had to stay o n Jakku. How could they find her otherwise? All she had to do was wait.

She was too young to scavenge. The Blobfish had made it clear as soon as she was big enough not to be easy prey for bandits or even animals, she'd be out there in the graveyard as well. He just didn't want to waste his investment by having her die before she could bring him anything. So instead she took inventory for the non-human, hiding in the back of the stand while people traded whatever they had to survive.

Well, not right now. Unkar had agreed, for the sake of her being able to manage inventory better, that every week, a few hours after midday, she could be taught how to read and do basic math by a religious wanderer, a former anchorite named Amid. Rey actually enjoyed those sessions. Well the lessons were bearable, but Amid was one of the few people actually nice to her. And he'd tell her stories about rebels, Jedi, and other heroes. Right now he was telling the story of Luke Skywalker, a rebellion hero, over the course of several sessions. Amid had stopped at a really clutch moment, and Rey couldn't wait to find out what happened next.

"Unkar?" Rey asked, placing the old datapad neatly by her work.

Unkar replied with an affirmative grunt to show he was listening.

"It's time for my session with Amid."

Unkar turned his giant head to look at the chrono. He knew it was 6 minutes off. It was all something they were used to.

"Don't waste my money," He turned back to looking at his messages. That was code for don't get killed and the best she'd get as a goodbye.

With that, Rey left through the back of the stand towards the Bazaar.

* * *

It wasn't too hard to find Amid. When he wasn't back at the Church of the Force village of Tunaal, he was meditating on a blanket at the same spot. He'd teach reading to anyone who wished to learn, or offer cryptic Force based advice.

Despite his religious fervor and enigmatic nature, Rey really liked him. One time when some other kids were sharing what happened to their parents, she lied and set Amid was her dad. Before that, another kid had said that he never knew his parents. The other kids, most of them orphans, all agreed his parents were dead. Rey just didn't want to have to argue how she knew, inherently, her parents were alive. A lot of the human kids doubted her because of the differences in their appearance, but some of the alien kids accepted it. It didn't matter, Rey had to rush back to the Blobfish at that moment.

"Rey," Amid said as she approached his blanket, raising his head and opening his eyes. His regular eye was fixed on her, while the dead one was stuck to the side.

"Amid," she replied, smiling as she joined him cross-legged on the blanket.

"So," Rey began as Amid searched for something in his pack, "Can you tell me what happened to Luke on Endor?"

Amid smiled and handed Rey a datapad. This one was new, she'd hadn't seen it before. But at least that meant she wouldn't have to read from religious texts.

"You know how this works. You have to read something, then I'll continue the story."

"No math work?" Rey was really excited. She hated arithmetic, more than reading. And this new datapad might actually have some interesting documents on it.

"I thought I'd be nice."

She powered up the datapad and looked at the document folders. She read each title aloud, waiting for Amid to tell her witch one contained what she'd be reading. Oddly, these folders were not military related. They weren't inventory lists or medbay reports. The closest she found were the ones labeled _Pre Endor reports, Endor battle records, MIA, Next of kin notices,_ and similar. But there were also folders titled _Holonovels, Stupid jokes, Cool ships, and Home_.

"There's a file in _Home_ I'd like you to read. It's the only text file, the rest are images. Thought it might be a good break from our usual material."

Now Rey was intrigued, although she wished she could have gotten a chance to see what was in _Cool ships_. Usually, it was just military records and Force stuff. The only text file was a small holonovel entitled _The Legend of Rica._

It was a fable about some kind of local animal called a slip-marmet. Rica and her sister Nica were found by a pack of snow-wolves when they were starving and orphaned. The wolves raised them, and in exchange, the sisters swore loyalty to the pack. Some of the other wolves didn't like have marmets in their pack, but the chief was kind, if strict.

Years later, a carrion-bird had begun taking the pack's food, rather than only taking from sky burials(they reminded Rey of the ripper-raptors that plagued Jakku, but these seemed to normally have honor, helping with disposing of the dead). Rica and Nica were small enough to follow the carrion-bird up the mountain he lived, so the chief tasked them to confront the bird who wouldn't follow the Order of the Beasts. When Nica and Rica arrived, the bird blocked them from entering his nest, but claimed he took the food because the rest of his clutch-mates were sick and needed the prey.

Nica believed him, and tried to convince her sister to pretend that they never found the bird. Rica (and clearly the narrator of the story) said that even if the clutch-mates were real, he was still breaking the Order of the Beasts and they'd sworn an oath to the pack to protect it and remain loyal.

When Rica wouldn't relent, the bird attempted to kill both of them. Nica was too slow to fight back and died, but Rica's strength came from her honor and she killed the bird. When she checked the nest, she discovered there were no clutch-mates, just piles of rotting food the carrion-bird didn't even have time to eat. Rica's loyalty was rewarded and she returned to her pack as a hero.

While reading the story to Amid, Rey stumbled a bit. There were a few local phrases they had to guess at the meaning of, but she understood most of the story. There was something she didn't like about it, but Rey couldn't put her finger on it. It didn't matter. Now instead of tediously reading, Amid would finish the story!

"Very good," Amid said as he took the datapad back.

"Now it's time for the story!" Rey exclaimed.

"Ah yes. Now, where were we last time? Was it the story about the deep space explorer and her Jedi friend?"

"No!" Rey replied in mock anger, just stifling her giggles. This was something they did every time. Amid pretended to forget what he told her last time and Rey got him all caught up. "It was the Skywalker story! The rebels had just found out about the second Death Star and saved Han. Luke, Leia, and Han were going to go to the moon and shut off the shield generator."

"Ah yes..."

* * *

 _Our quartet of heroes- don't forget Chewbacca was there as well- had been entrusted with the most important mission. If they couldn't destroy the shield generator, the Alliance would be unable to destroy the half-finished Death Star and the Empire would spread terror across the galaxy, wiping out the rebellion. They used a stolen Imperial shuttle and codes to get past the blockade and land on the moon._

 _But as they landed, Luke sensed something. Darth Vader, the man who had killed his father, had found him through the Force. Their bond, forged through combat and adversity would give the mission away. But Luke could sense something else. There was still light in Vader. The Jedi he once was, the man who loved and protected and lost, was still there. It was the Emperor who had twisted and manipulated him. Vader had been close to Anakin, and that love was still there. And if called upon, could protect Luke._

 _So he made a plan. If he remained with his friends, Vader would track him through the Force and ruin all chance of stealth. Skywalker surrendered to the imperials at one of their bases on the moon, after being sure to give his friends enough of a head start._

 _He willingly handed over his lightsaber and went forth without fear. Vader came and escorted him to the Emperor. This sith lord warned his former padawan's son that he should fear the power of the dark side. His friends were doomed and the only way to survive was to bow to the Emperor._

 _And the Emperor, a cruel old man, crueler than Unkar or the sun, sat on his throne on the second Death Star and looked down upon Luke. He used the force to free Skywalker from his bonds and tasked Vader to destroy him. The two fought, but Luke made no move to attack. As the Emperor urged the Jedi to use his anger, but Luke trusted Vader- and trusted in the Force. He would not strike down Anakin's son_ in _this moment._

 _And he didn't. As Luke lay on the floor in the throes of Force Lighting, Vader made a choice. He grabbed the man who had manipulated him all these years and threw him down a shaft._

 _But Vader had already suffered so much from the lighting of the Emperor. His life support suit had been damaged and he would not survive. Vader knew this. As Luke crouched by his burned body, Vader removed his mask. With his real eyes, he looked into the face of his best friend's son._ Light _was in his heart. He had gone from being the Sith Lord himself to the savior of the galaxy. And he died a hero and a Jedi._

 _The Alliance was able to destroy the second Death Star when Han, Leia, and Chewie, taking on a whole garrison of stormtroopers destroyed the shield generator protecting the monstrosity. The heroic rebel pilots flew through the web of_ durasteel _and doonium and destroyed the reactor, removing the face of imperial terror from the galaxy. Luke escaped with a new purpose- that of restoring the Jedi Order._

* * *

"But that wasn't the end of the war, right?" Rey asked, interpreting Amid. "There was still Jakku."

"Of course," Amid said, "but that was a victory of tactics and machines, not one of the light."

Rey pouted. A story on Jakku would be more grounded, and feel more real. Something she could relate too. Not one involving a planet of green she could barely imagine.

"Well, I do have one story about Skywalker on Jakku."

Rey perked up. Then she realized she'd have to wait a week to hear it.

"And I'll tell you it now. It's not that long." Rey almost jumped into the air cheering.

* * *

 _Skywalker had come with the New Republic fleet to Jakku. He could not resurrect the Jedi Order while the galaxy was still at war. But he didn't command it from the bridge of the Starhawk. With the removal of the Sith, Luke's powers had increased exponentially. He hopped from ship to ship, the Force sustaining him in the vacuum of space. He struck down TIEs with his emerald lightsaber and danced among the stars._

 _Despite this, the scattered elements of the Imperial Fleet were winning the space battle. The_ Ravager _took down two_ Starhawks _, and only one remained. It was from on top of the Concord that Luke devised a plan. He knew he could very well die, but he wasn't afraid. His life was an easy sacrifice for bringing peace._

 _He reached out into the Force and felt the Star Destroyers. Their hyperdrives bending reality, their engines moving them through_ realspace _, their gunners intent to kill, and the cruelty of their commanders. And reaching into the Force, he sent lighting coursing through them, completely disabling them. Then he pulled them down._ Six star _destroyers and the_ Ravager _plummeted towards Jakku. The power of their landing shook the planet to the core, threatening to tear it apart. That was what caused the Great Shakes towards the end of the battle._

 _And Skywalker survived. His risk had allowed the New Republic to push back on all stages on the battle; ground, space, and atmospheric. After the battle, he traveled to the surface. There Luke found an imperial gunner, addled and afraid. The gunner was from one of the ships he had brought down, and the only survivor._

 _Luke led the gunner through the newly created graveyard. The gunner was afraid of Luke. He'd heard the lies the Empire told about rebel_ heroes, _and believed them all. But eventually, they reached a now abandoned imperial garrison._

 _The gunner ran to get help, expecting an imperial force, but only found scavengers taking what they could. But then disaster struck. The reactor core of a nearby ship had exploded. And like lava from a volcano, a molten wave of glass and metal flowed towards the garrison. It was fast approaching and the walls would not hold forever. Most of the scavengers_ _believed they would die that night._

 _Skywalker tried to keep them calm, but soon realized it would be a waste of time. Instead, he looked for heat-resistant metal. From those, he constructed covering for his feet. Like the kind people say can get you across the Sinking Fields. They were wide enough to keep him above the lava and wouldn't burn up._

 _To the people's disbelief, Luke was able to walk across the lava. He trusted in himself and the Force that his invention would not fail_ him, _and went without fear. Once he succeeded. the gunner and the scavengers were inspired. They made their own inventions and crossed the river of fire. But when they had escaped it, Skywalker was gone._

* * *

Rey's jaw was slack. Someone the second story, the more extravagant one, felt the most grounded. The most real. And if Skywalker could really do those things, he really was a real hero.

Amid smiled and chuckled. "You're welcome."

"Oh right. Thanks for the extra story." Rey looked down at the datapad in her hands. The other files on Home were pictures. Pictures of a family. She moved to open the first one, but realized she should probably head back to the Blobfish. If Amid didn't have anything else planned, she might have some free time.

"I can tell you want to keep the datapad. Probably want to look at those ships."

"Uh, yeah," Rey lied. She hadn't even considered that.

"You can have it. I've already copied all the texts. Not many in there."

Rey beamed and clutched the datapad. She was going to thank Amid, but he then fixed his eyes at something behind her and spoke. "Ah. Looks like the first scavenger is coming back."

Rey turned around to see the vague form of a Twi'lek riding a happabore and groaned internally. Echar was a half-crazed scavenger, yet still a pretty good one. But his schedules were unusual. The reason Unkar allowed her this time was because almost no one brought in salvage at this time. This wasn't the first time he'd interrupted her lessons. And Unkar would fly into a rage and cut an entire meal if she wasn't there when scrap was traded in.

Turning on the datapad and tucking it under her arm, she dashed back to the concession stand, barely making it in before Echar began ranting about the spirits of the pieces his was handing in. After properly appraising the pieces for their worth in real credits (Rey was honestly astonished that some people thought Unkar calculated an accurate value with the few moments he was given to look something over), Rey was sent back to work on the shipment she was preparing. With all the work, she couldn't look at the datapad until night.

* * *

Rey snuggled under another rough blanket as she lay in the middle of the seemingly massive hammock she had strung up in the back of the concession stand, attempting to block out the cold of a Jakku night. Unkar had left for who-knows-where to sleep and Rey was alone. She pulled out the datapad and activated the brightness so she could see in the dark. Instead of opening the Cool Ships folder, she opened the one labeled _Home_.

There were four pictures, none of which were taken by a proper holocam, not that datapad seemed to have a functioning projector anyway. The first one was grainy and sepia colored, as if the camera that took it was already decades old and close to breaking down. It showed a small human infant with dark skin wearing a small brown nightdress. The child was sleeping on a pile of soft looking furs and a rope bracelet was tied around their fragile wrist.

The next was a photo of similar quality, just now with color, showing what looked to be the same child, now a toddler and recognizable as female. Her dress was in the same style, and the long sleeves could easily have been hiding the bracelet. She was sitting in the lap of an older woman, who had a kind of tired kindness in her eyes. She looked to be the child's mother. Standing with his hand on the woman's shoulder was a tall man, who Rey assumed was the father. Even with the small smiles on the adults' faces, it looked like a formal occasion. The barely visible stool the mother sat on and the blank background made Rey think this was some kind of family photoshoot. The toddler didn't seem to realize this, as she looked to be in the middle of bouncing around.

The next showed a teenager, clearly the infant and toddler from the earlier pictures, wearing some imperial-ish uniform. Her bushy hair was now braided back and she stood at attention. But Rey could see a smile and cheer about to break the facade. The picture clearly wasn't some formal registration thing. It was the same quality as the first pictured, while countless people moved around in the crowd behind her. Some people wore similar uniforms, while others wore the same earthy colors and her parents had years before. But most wore what looked to be brightly colored cloaks, but the image quality meant Rey could easily be wrong.

The last image was of excellent quality, even if it was clearly zoomed in and cropped. It showed the same girl, now a couple years older, wearing what was clearly an imperial officer uniform, the lieutenant rank plague carefully pinned to her carefully ironed uniform. On both sides were processions of similarly ranked officers. The young woman was clearly proud and excited. Maybe it was a graduation ceremony. Rey had no idea what an imperial cadet uniform looked like. That could have been what she was wearing in the last picture.

This gave Rey some mixed feelings. In her child-like mind, things were still black and white. The Alliance were heroes and kind people, like Amid. The Empire was full of cruel people and bullies. An entire galaxy of Unkars. But the girl looked so nice. Maybe she defected. That would explain the Endor reports and personal files on the same pad. The image of her graduation was to remind her what she'd grown beyond. Either way, the shell of the pad was so worn and scratched, Rey couldn't make out any markings.

But that wasn't what entranced Rey. It was this beautiful image of a family. Rey wished with all her heart that she had a picture of her parents. She didn't realize she had been crying until she tasted the salt. Lying there in the dark, with only the screen visible, Rey felt she could almost reach out and enter that world. She went back to family portrait and traced the face of the mother with her finger, then the father's. She only stopped looking when she could no longer keep her eyes open. Then she turned the pad off and placed it carefully on the floor under the hammock. And then she dreamed.

* * *

Rey was standing in the usual place. She barely remembered what it looked like when she awakened, but now the details were clear. The island was green, a beautiful vibrant green she'd never seen in real life. A rich dark gray was scattered between it. The air held more moisture then Rey thought possible and she tasted salt on her tongue, as water stretched away all around her.

The water was not clear like the small amounts scavengers traded for. It wasn't the murky brown of a happabore tank. Nor was it the blue she often heard water described as. It was gray and chaotic.

She knew the path. She always knew. She wasn't sure how, but her feet moved away from the cliff and towards the place. There was the tree. The mist floated up to her ankles. Rey didn't know what she'd find inside. Sometimes it was a void. Sometimes it held nothing but pain. Sometimes it was the battle between things she could not perceive. Once it was nothing but a thousand voices chanting "Wrong." But sometimes it was good things, a sense of belonging. Or a vision of her parents finding her.

This was one of the good ones. As Rey stepped into the hollow tree, there were the parents from the datapad. Except they were her's. And the girl was her older sister. They were sorry about leaving her, but they had to. And now they could be a family again. The girl taught her how to fly ships and explained how she had left the Empire and been a rebellion hero.

The years marched on and things changed. In only a month, Rey was deemed strong enough to scavenge, although she was lent out to other scavengers to assist them. She learned how to survive. Her lessons with Amid stopped entirely, and he began to fade from her thoughts. She didn't think of him when word of the massacre at Tunaal reached Niima. Rey's abilities grew and she struck out on her own, still waiting. When fate brought her away from Jakku, in a similar way to the one meant to raise her, she had found a new purpose. She was more than a scavenger or a failed plan.

She was Rey.

* * *

A/N: _Both of Amid's stories played a specific purpose when it came to how Rey acted in TLJ. The retelling of ROTJ was what put it in her head that Kylo could still have light in him. Since the whole "Vader is Anakin Skywalker" thing was kept on the down low up until six years before TFA, I didn't think Amid would know_ that, _even if he picked up the part of Vader being redeemed from Lor or those who knew Lor at Tunaal. So that's why I went with Anakin being Vader's padawan (basically replacing Ahsoka as everything except for being Fulcrum). The second story is pretty much bullshit, but it's based on the second story of Legends of Luke Skywalker. Amid would have heard it from the concussed gunner who told the story in the book. This painted Luke as a perfect hero in Rey's mind, especially since the real message of "We are all Luke Skywalker" wasn't in this retelling. And if it wasn't blindingly obvious, the datapad belonged to Ciena Ree. The personal files were sent to her by Nash. Ciena barely read them._

 _Also since getting Rey's Survival Guide, I realized that there's a group of what seem to be insane stormtroopers guarding an Imperial base on the Carbon Ridge. In this fic, so Malarus and Casper wouldn't have to fight past them, they're guarding the landing platform were the Eclipse was located. They just haven't realized there's nothing there._


	5. Chapter 5: Complicit Part 1

_Four hours after the death of Lor San Tekka- The Supremacy, Unnamed nebula in the Unknown Regions_

Casper rubbed his bleary eyes as the shift change alarm sounded throughout the _Supremacy_. Still half asleep, he got out of bed without acknowledging the other officers in his barracks. With his eyes closed for most of it, he changed into his gray lieutenant uniform, making sure the hat was on straight.

He was still rubbing sleep from his eyes when he reached the mess hall, where he used Malarus' privileges to get a cup of caf with his rations from the service droid. He sat down next to a young ensign he'd seen before but didn't know the name of. Everyone on the Supremacy was either exceptional enough to be assigned to the Supreme Leader's flagship or made enough political blunders to be assigned to the one ship that had never seen battle.

When Casper just started on his morning meal, Wen slid down beside him with her own tray. Although officers had more meal time than stormtroopers, it was still fairly short. Casper hoped that he wouldn't get too caught up in whatever she had to say that he'd be hungry his entire shift.

Wen, unlike Casper, was unnamed. So even if she somehow became an Admiral, she'd still be WN-34758. Almost all stormtroopers were unnamed, and just like in the Empire, anyone in a combat role had to be referred to by their operating number. Unnamed could still be officers, but it was an open secret that their advancement was unlikely. It would be lucky that an unnamed managed to become a Captain.

Wen was a Sergeant, but her situation was unique. She had been Captain Cardinal's top information curator. She'd designed most of the holos and records that trained young stormtroopers, as well as many of the posters that were hung up around the _Absolution_. After Cardinal's death at the hands of a Resistance spy several years ago, Phasma transferred Wen to the same spare room Casper was later left in. Everyone assumed Wen was stuck there because Phasma didn't want the allies of her old rival still around. But having never done anything to warrant a court-martial, there was nothing Phasma could really do other than keep Wen out of the action.

"How's the Skywalker search going?" Wen asked. She knew Casper still used Malarus' clearance as her aide to access the files. No one had taken it away, despite not acting as her aide for almost three months now, and it being over two weeks since her death.

"Haven't been able to check since last shift. I just woke up." After Casper finished speaking, he went back to the tasteless ration cubes, still listening to what Wen was saying.

"Ah dang. I thought you would have more information. The _Finalizer_ moved to Jakku during the night shift. And you know how Hux and Phasma have taken over the Skywalker search. But I don't have access to anything else."

The Skywalker search was one of Wen's favorite topics of gossip. She often theorized why the First Order would be after him. One of her theories was that he was gathering power in secret to oppose the First Order. The other one was that the Supreme Leader wanted to execute him publicly as a show of strength. To show how their supposed hero was weak. And prove that he was literally dead, so the people who didn't understand he died when he left the galaxy to chaos would get the message.

"Jakku could just be for conquering. There's a lot of chaos and ruin there. And scrap I suppose. Lots of people that need structure." Casper stopped. He didn't want to reveal exactly how much he knew about Jakku.

"Yeah but why send the _Finalizer_?" she rebutted,"It's an academy ship. We have tons of other free ships in our fleet if it's for conquering reasons."

"No idea. It's not our job to question our superiors, especially without all the information." Casper knew parroting an ultimatum like that would quickly end the conversation. As talkative as Wen was, she was completely loyal to the First Order.

"Good point." Wen picked up her mug of water and held it up to toast. "To Carva Malarus, who died as she lived, serving the forces of good and order in the Empire and the First Order."

The volume of the toast attracted the glares of a few nearby officers, but most of the crew assigned to this mess hall knew Wen by reputation and face, if not by name, for zealous displays like this.

"To Malarus," Casper said, returning the toast, a pit in his stomach. Even as Malarus confided in him less and less over the years, eventually replacing him with Terex, he knew she never served the First Order out of honor or loyalty, but for her own personal gain.

Casper downed the mug of caf in one go after Wen left, probably to bug someone else. As the heat and caffeine burned his veins, he wondered how the young woman ever found time to eat. After that, slightly regretting how quickly he drank the caf, he finished off the rest of his meal quickly to make up for lost time.

* * *

Casper stepped into the spare room with a few seconds left, and found that the rest of the crew for this room were already there. Spare rooms were a side effect of how almost all the military might of the First Order was on capital ships. With such little ground to cover, personnel with no assignments couldn't be dropped off in a quiet Mid Rim garrison and left to rot.

Every destroyer had one or two rooms, but the _Supremacy_ had the most. Without too many cadets on ships other than the academy ones or the secretive planetary S base, a lot of the beings assigned to such rooms picked up the slack with cleaning. But this spare room was for information work. There were computer terminals scattered about, while the officers did work like proofreading reports and organizing intelligence.

Most of the crew here rotated around, sometimes for just a day to scare someone. A lot of the times it was to get someone out of the way while the security bureau investigated, but wanted to keep them on their toes yet keeping them out of a cell. The core group for this room consisted of three people, four if you counted the overseer.

The overseer of the room was the only one with a formal assignment. They made sure the spares were actually doing something. The good news was that Tal cared more about efficiency than discipline and let everyone choose their assignments and have some free time. Tal's bluish skin and red irises gave it away that he was half Chiss, but Casper had no idea how the timeline for that would have worked, and never asked. One time when he got a glance at Tal's file (and discovered his name was Chimer'tal'arquen) he saw that he was classified as a "Chimera", but had no idea what that meant. Everyone privately knew that his assignment was because he wasn't a full human.

Unlike ship crews, spares worked 12-hour shifts through the entire day. But their assignments were much less rigorous (although Casper had heard of overseers who created their own strict schedule). So long as they did some work, Tal mostly left them to their own devices. Casper would open an incoming channel and then pull up an old Imperial era cartoon from the First Order entertainment archives. Usually, the production value was terrible, and Casper mainly watched them for that reason, to laugh at the bad acting and repetitive plots.

Other than Casper and Wen, the other core member was Quaynerna. She was the same model of cyborg as Terex, although no one knew what her former role was or how she was sentenced to the implants. And based on Terex's actions, they seemed to have much better control of Quay. A splicer that had been stationed in the room a few months ago had reprogramed Quay to not object to calling Wen by a nickname because of how closely she followed protocol.

Casper, despite still formally being Malarus' aide until her death, was assigned here after Malarus was gifted Terex to her during the Skywalker search. He still managed a few things, but he often wondered if this was a test or punishment from his now dead companion.

Casper sat down at his station and pulled up the folder for the Skywalker search, his code cylinders verifying him without the computer asking for a password. A lieutenant like him normally wouldn't have access to the entire operation database, but as an aide, Casper had access to almost all the files concerning the operation. Although there were a few things that were locked to him, and asking for special permission could result in the loss of all the privileges he had as Malarus' aide.

Speaking of files he didn't have access to, last evening, right as his shift was ending, a mission report was uploaded. The enigmatic dark warrior Kylo Ren had traveled to none other than Phillo when news of an associate of Lor San Tekka had been captured by JSec (the associate's name was above his clearance. Attached was an assessment of the situation on Vardos, also above this clearance). The interrogation, that had no attached recordings, not even one Casper couldn't access, produced the information that Lor had hid a map to Skywalker on Bayora Station years ago. After that, Casper had looked up Bayora Station in the First Order's database and had gotten a good overview of what it even was.

Bayora Station had been referenced in some Old Republic documents, but in 200 BFE, it vanished, only to return five years after the Battle of Jakku. It was a large floating space station, with sections of different architecture cobbled together. It appeared at the debris site of some old Imperial archive named Hivebase One. The caretaker droids affixed the largest parts to the station, before jumping to the same deep space site it inhabited centuries ago. For scholars and archaeologists, the station was a mystery. The massive archive mostly contained documents, not in any known language, and the caretakers ignored organics. Some of the beings became zealots to the archive, earning the protection of the droids but losing their minds in the process. After it was revealed to be a dead end, interest in Bayora slowed to a barely noticeable trickle. But when it came to hiding information, it was as good a place as any. The droids wouldn't move it, but they'd take care of it. So long as you remembered its location and the station didn't decide to leave again, it would be a place your enemies would never check without a lead.

Casper was excited to see that a full after action report on Bayora had been composed as he slept. This one followed protocol and was much more detailed than the Phillo one, including fewer parts below his clearance. Theem Absolution/em docked at Bayora Station, with the resources to comb through the entire archive and hold off any cultists or droids. A cultist, seemingly not aware this was an invading force, acted like a librarian, but with only half of her words in Basic. When an officer said they were looking for Tekka, the cultist informed them that he had left for Jakku, but any other information was in the unknown language.

Suspecting this was a form of misdirection, the _Absolution_ remained, while the _Finalizer_ , along with Phasma and Kylo traveled to Jakku. Previous research into Tekka's past (done by Casper for Malarus) had revealed a connection to the Church of the Force village of Tuanul. Neither of the two had been there personally, but it was disturbing how such a backwater of a planet was suddenly relevant again.

There wasn't a report written yet on what had occurred at Tuanul, other than one saying that the operation had started a few hours ago. Leaving the feed open, so that he would be notified when the report was completed, Casper pulled up a folder of special gear requisition requests he was working on prioritizing at the end of last shift to help the quartermasters who could actually make the calls. A lot of the requests were already processed, but many more had been added, so he got to work.

* * *

Casper was broken out of his work-trance by a ping from his headset. Minimizing the window containing the requisition requests, he pulled up the Skywalker search window. There was the report for Tuanull. Expecting minimal resistance, a transport of stormtroopers, consisting of Phasma's best and oldest cadets landed. The religious folk fought back with improvised weapons and refused to surrender. No one of recruiting age was found, so they were all exterminated. A single Resistance pilot and X-wing were on site. The pilot fought to defend the villagers and was captured. The map to Skywalker that was on Bayora Station wasn't found. Kylo Ren confronted, then killed Tekka. The conflict with the villagers had minimal casualties.

Attached to the report were videos and combat statistics for all the stormtroopers involved, as well as a chemical analysis of the X-wing after it was destroyed. Those were the domain of psytechs, tactical analysts, and science officers. Casper hoped that the map wasn't destroyed with the ship, and that all the work had been for nothing.

There was also an incomplete prisoner processing form for the pilot, and the results of an interrogation also lacking any documentation. Casper suspected this was because of Kylo Ren. The masked man was of nebulously high rank. Regardless of his actual place in the First Order hierarchy, he was too high to do his own datawork. But unlike anyone of that rank, Ren had no valued aides and officers to do that work for him. Phasma had her tactical analysts. Hux had his small group of valued officers. Snoke had- well no one knew what the Supreme Leader had. But he never really did anything that needed datawork. And so people like Casper had to fill in the blanks.

There was an order attached after the interrogation. The base one was simplistic, but documents with the details of following out those orders were attached. The pilot had received the map and given it to his astromech droid. The droid had fled the scene and was now somewhere on Jakku. It was a BB-unit, with white and orange markings...

Instantly, Casper knew who the pilot was. It was Malarus' biggest annoyance, Poe Dameron. Of course, the Resistance would let Dameron finish the job. And the BB-unit was reported to have who knows how many aftermarket modifications and the erratic behavior that came with extremely infrequent memory wipes. To confirm this, Casper went and pulled up a random trooper's helmet feed from the battle, skipping around until he found what he was looking for. He didn't need any facial recognition program. Even with low resolution and the smoke of battle, Casper knew it was Dameron.

Using this information, Casper attached the best quality images of the droid from old records and all the information about its capabilities to the order, creating what was practically a wanted poster. Then, piecing together more precise information such as times from what he had, he also finished Dameron's intake form.

Pleased with his work, Casper went to pull up the entertainment archives, when he felt Wen tap on his shoulder. In response, he took his headset off and turned around in his chair to look up at her.

"Hey Cas," Wen said, "I was wondering if we could go to the training room." Wen had been working at getting rated as a riot control specialist ever since she'd been assigned here. Her lack of physical strength had made that a long and arduous process, but Casper didn't mind being her sparring partner. It also helped keep his own physical capabilities in shape. It was also a great way to blow off steam and not think for an hour or so.

"Ah sure." As he said that, he made sure to catch Tal's eye. He was very chill with them making their own schedules on their shifts, but Casper still wanted to make sure. Seeing the half-chiss' barely noticeable nod, he got up and followed Wen, his computer terminal automatically turning off and his session ended when his code cyndiclers got too far away.

On the way to the training room, he filled Wen in on what else had happened. For once, she listened, and nodded along with what he said. At the lockers, they put their uniforms away and donned officer training outfits (a stormtrooper body sleeve with a black chestpiece resembling the one troopers wore but with more electronics in it for things like score keeping). Wen put on the rest of the armor, looking almost identical to a crowd control specialist. Their first exercise was a simple touch-for-point duel. Wen wielded a riot control baton while Casper had a training club modified with electronics for proper score keeping.

After they did that for a while (Wen won in the end, but only by a close point margin), Casper donned a helmet so he could participate in a simulation with her. Together they used batons and shields to hold back endless waves of holographic rioters.

After 15 minutes of high intensity fighting, they were overwhelmed. For only two, their score was really good, but both of them felt ready to collapse. Wen's exhaustion only increased the speed and erraticness of her speech, so as they showered and changed back into their regular uniforms(either newly washed or just brand new uniforms in their size, this was to keep people from storing personal effects them), Casper had to listen to Wen rant about weapon specs and which forms of improvised weapons were most favored by insurgents in specific territories (Mine rioters always used whatever tools they had on hand, but almost never with enough coordination that overseers couldn't deactivate them more quickly than they rose up. An unusual amount of solar crossbows were wielded on some planet he'd never heard of called Attera Bravo).

Exhausted and drinking from provided water canteens, Wen and Casper returned to the spare room with just enough time for the lunch break to begin. Casper was able to separate himself from Wen, and his thoughts gravitated to imagining scenarios of what would happen to the droid on Jakku. He hoped that the droid wasn't completely eaten by the sand, not to be discovered for years. This wasn't out of any kind of wish for the First Order to find Skywalker, but from a sense of- well something that wanted this story to have a satisfying ending

* * *

Returning to his terminal after lunch didn't give Casper that ending, but it did add another twist to the story. A resistance spy had infiltrated the _Finalizer_ disguised as a stormtrooper and managed to break Dameron out, eventually escaping towards Jakku in a SpecForces TIE. They also managed to damage a lot of the ship's turbolasers, inflict some casualties in the hanger, and shoot a few TIEs before crashing somewhere on the planet. Casper was shocked that a spy had managed to get onto the _Finalizer_. He tried searching linked documents for more information, but he couldn't even find the ID number of the trooper the spy impersonated. There was a document linked with an extremely high clearance, only open to Hux, Phasma, and some very high ranking psytechs. Casper was confused, but there seemed to be nothing else he could do. Well, there was probably a lot of cross referencing of records he could do, but that would be sticking his nose where it didn't belong, a very dangerous thing in the First Order. It would be best to let it sort itself out. Phasma was probably just worried about more spies aboard her ship.

Casper spent the rest of the day alternating between compiling dossiers and watching old imperial cartoons, but his thoughts were a million light-years away. Despite that, they just trod the same information and conclusions in circles, never producing anything new. Then it was dinner and bed, only to wake up the next morning. The same stuff, watching the operation he was once part of from a data center, unable to even give suggestions.

* * *

The morning brought nothing new, other than the notification that a bounty on the droid had been sent out in the appropriate channels. Casper wondered what criminal connections the First Order could even have on Jakku, but he didn't have to wonder long. A few hours into the shift, the drugedy of Casper's work was broken by the notification of an incoming holocall on the bounty channel.

The image from the holoprojector at Casper's station was extremely low quality, but Casper easily recognized the face of who was calling.

Unkar Plutt.

"I have the droid you're looking for."

Casper trained his face. As Malarus' aide, he often had to answer bounty calls. He knew the protocol. He couldn't let Unkar recognize him. So he followed the script.

"Please show us evidence that you have the droid in custody," Casper said, his imperial accent strong and his voice measured.

"Well, I don't have it with me right now. One of my scrappers brought it in. I thought she'd sell it, but she didn't. I'm sending my thugs to obtain it personally right now. Just thought I should call ahead."

"The credits will not be transferred until you have the droid in custody."

"Yeah, I got that. Just thought you could send someone ahead. I'll have it soon. Real soon. But hypothetically, if I didn't get the droid, will I still be paid?"

"There is a smaller reward for information, if you are requesting that."

"No no. Of course not, just give me a bit of time and I'll have the droid really soon." The call ended abruptly, and Casper let out a deep breath, slumping down in his chair.

After taking a couple seconds to reclaim his bearings, Casper sent the recording of his conversation on to whatever member of Phasma's/Hux's tactical team would see it, but before he pressed sent, Casper hesitantly typed out something in the notes section:

 _I have had personal dealings with Unkar Plutt before joining the First Order. (I spent about fourteen years on Jakku, my profile will verify this) He is extremely unreliable. It is highly likely that once he has the droid in his custody, he will attempt to extort a higher reward for it. And if whichever scavenger who found the droid was bold enough to deny Plutt something he wanted, she is either a highly skilled combatant or very foolish. And foolish people don't last long on Jakku._

 _Therefore, it is also probable that Unkar's half-trained thugs will be unable to obtain the droid. I recommend sending First Order operatives to Niima Outpost to apprehend the droid before he does. If you wish to continue a relationship with Unkar Plutt, I recommend you still pay him the information reward money. He is highly motivated by greed, and I suspect simply the information reward is more than he makes in half a year._

As Casper reviewed what he had written for typos, he realized he didn't read it back to himself in his own voice, but Malarus'. He shrugged. That must be what writing reports from Malarus for years did to you. After being sent to the spare room, the most he had written were two sentence requisition rejections, never anything this long.

Well, he pressed send and hoped they would appreciate his work. Heck, he might even get a real post with all the assistance he'd been giving during this stage of the operation. Maybe he'd become Kylo's aide. He handled Malarus' temper (a side effect from her drugs), he could handle Ren's. Satisfied, Casper returned to his work.

* * *

Two hours later, the Skywalker Search file was updated. Casper was pleasantly surprised when he found they had taken his suggestion. He was less happy when he saw that it wasn't effective. The stormtroopers had located the droid with a human female dressed in scavenger clothing and a known fugitive (Casper assumed it was the same Resistance spy). The troopers opened fire, only for the fugitives to avoid it. Air support was called in when the two beings reached an open area, only for them to steal a YT-1300 and escape. The ensuing dogfight spilled over into the starship graveyard, where they managed to take down all the TIEs and then jump to hyperspace.

Casper was shocked. He'd spent years hearing about the improved quality of stormtrooper training under the First Order. Skill was more consistent, instead of there being a few good academies and then there mostly being backwater ones. And TIE pilots were less disposable, with more training and actual shields on their ships. And it was in a freighter, something with minimal shielding and low power guns. The Resistance spy must be as good a pilot as the (assumed deceased) Dameron.

So Casper turned to the written up profiles of the two fugitives. Most of the spies' file was above his clearance, but it now had a basic physical description, although Casper was surprised there was no picture from the trooper's helmet records. And he didn't know why the common warning that Resistance members were "c _ompulsive liars who would twist the truth to confuse you and tempt you to treason_ " was restated in the file. He shrugged, knowing only bad things would happen if he dug further, and pulled up the file for the second fugitive.

Then Casper's world shattered.

The first thing he saw in the fugitive's file was an image of her. It was low quality, from a helmet cam, but he would know those braids anywhere. They were the same as the ones he made fourteen years ago. That was ( _his daughter_ ) the girl he left on Jakku, all grown up. She'd survived 15 years on Jakku by herself, no small feat, but now she was challenging the First Order! No amount of skill, tenacity, or luck could keep her alive now.

As he came to such a conclusion, the ice over Casper's heart had begun to melt, and guilt and fear washed over him. But it wasn't because of some sudden realization of what horrors he had been complacent in and abetting. Of the worlds burned in part by him. Of the hope he conspired to tear from the galaxy. Of the innocents slaughtered for cruel designs. He still didn't truly understand what a dark machine he was a cog in, but now he had something to care about. This girl, who he arguably should have no connection to, had awakened something in him.

But this only lasted for a few moments, before being overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. Yes, he cared for something now, but he was paralyzed by the fact he didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't like he was on the front lines. He couldn't beg Malarus or Phasma to spare her. And his primal sense of self-preservation still remained, without a plan to get himself to safety or do it unnoticeably, Casper couldn't bring himself to sabotage the mission.

He tried to quiet now just not his thoughts, but his emotions. He closed out of the Skywalker folder completely and pulled up some busy work, but he couldn't even delegate any amount of focus to even comprehending it. His hands shaking, he turned off his monitor and turned to Wen.

"Hey, you wanna train?" he asked, his words only unsteady in his mind.

Wen didn't look up. Instead, she was staring intently at a datapad hooked up to her computer and she was drawing something with her tablet. Her tongue was out slightly, but her face was locked in a pose of regal serenity. "I'm in the zone, can't stop now," she managed to force out.

Realizing she was probably drawing a poster no one had even requested (Wen had an idea that if she made something good enough, she be let back into information curation, Casper sighed and got up out of his chair.

"Are you okay Cas?" Tal asked, looking up from his work. Casper almost jumped, thinking that Tal had figured out what he'd just discovered, but then he realized it was just because he had never asked Wen to join him for training before, it was always the other way around.

"Uh yeah," Casper lied, "I'm just weirdly restless today. Must have gotten a bad caf serving. I've been trying to wait it out, but it won't go. So I thought might as well use the energy, or try to exercise it out of me."

Tal stared Casper down, considering what he'd just said. Casper hated when Tal did that. He always felt like the half-Chiss was picking him apart in search of something. Then Tal turned back to his terminal. "Very well, just don't be too long.

* * *

Casper returned to the training room and fought against waves of holographic enemies armed with a shield and vibro-axe. After each time he was overwhelmed, he started up the simulation again, despite his shaking limbs and gulping breaths. At first, the exercise stimulated his mind and gave him a chance to think, even if any sort of real plan remained out of reach. But eventually he reached the other side, and his thoughts spiraled away from him. He only stopped when the training computer forced him to, detecting dehydration and that he was on the verge of passing out.

But the ice had returned. As he sat at his computer terminal half an hour later, drinking water, his thighs throbbing, he was as listless as he always was. He didn't think of Rae and the terrible danger she was in. It was just mindless work and bad holos, and that was fine.

* * *

The next day was normal. Casper's muscles ached from overexertion, but it was almost like the last few days hadn't happened. There were no new Skywalker search updates, and after checking the folder at the start of his shift, Casper left it closed the rest of the day.

However, a few hours after lunch, something odd happened. The voice of the _Supremacy_ Captain Peavey came over the intercom, something normally only ever used for drills or shift change bells.

"We are on the verge of greatness. Soon we will return to the Core worlds and bring order back to a chaotic galaxy. The time we have waited decades for is at hand. To see the beginning of our triumph, all First Order personnel are to assemble in hangers based on their sectors."

There was a short pause before a different junior officer began to read off what sectors of the ship corresponded to each hanger. Casper zoned out until his sector was called, and the entire group used that time to shut off their terminals.

Once it was called, the four officers exited the spare room and headed towards that hanger. Not quite knowing where it was, they trusted Quay and her internal map of the massive ship to lead them there. As the cyborg marched ahead at perfect military attention, the fully organic beings lagged behind to share whispers.

"What do you think that's for?" Wen started.

"This isn't part of any normal evacuation protocol," Tal sounded deep in thought as he threw ideas out there. "Peavey made it sound like a good thing, but even an announcement of something like an Ascendancy alliance or invasion orders would be communicated down the chain of command. I would know about it before you guys."

"Maybe the Supreme Leader is making an address?" Wen offered.

"Something like that would be scheduled. And since we can't fit the all the crew in any one room, there would be a system of assigning everyone briefing rooms. It doesn't make sense to announce it at a moment's notice."

"What if this is a Resistance attack? And they're gonna disable the rey shields and space us!" Wen sounded more excited than scared, but the sudden proclamation caused Casper's eyes to go wide and start listening intently to the conversation, waiting for Tal to disprove Wen's fluff-brained theory.

Instead, Tal thought for a moment, opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it, as if he had just disproved his own point in his head before he had a chance to say it. This repeated many times, until Tal finally shook his head in frustration.

"I have no icon-clad answer to give you. What Wen said remains a possibility. But it's very unlikely. The Resistance would require incredible planning, resources, manpower, and the hardest to get, perfect intelligence of the specific nature of each aspect of the Supremacy's defenses. If the counter-intelligence reports I have access to are accurate, then they aren't even sure the _Supremacy_ exists."

Wen tucked a strand of hair back into her ponytail and sighed. "Let me guess, you had a big debate with yourself in your head before responding. You always think too much in non-serious conversations."

Tal's face became much more serious and his tone much more regulated. "I will remind you that I am your superior office and I will pretend I didn't hear that last statement."

Casper had to chuckle internally. Tal always said that excess formality and command structures were bad for efficiency and effectiveness, but sometimes Wen tested his laid back nature too much. But he knew Tal didn't mind, it was just that this level of familiarity would get him in trouble.

The awkward silence lasted for the next few minutes it took the group to reach their assigned hanger, witch was already half full of rows of techs, officers, and stormtroopers standing at parade attention. The assorted TIEs that dotted the hanger had been placed in their ceiling holders and the rey shield had a large holoprojector under it. It was sloppy, but the secrecy of the event meant that only a few people got slightly more notice than the rest of the ship. A small holo projector at each of the entrances read _No assigned positions. Parade attention throughout_

The group took their position at the first uneven square. There were a few officers directing people so that each being was an equal distance from each other and that the size was consistent for each of the six squares.

Everyone knew not to speak, so the would be quiet voices of the officers directing newcomers rang throughout the hanger. When they weren't speaking, only the sound of the ship's idling engines and mostly automated factories could be heard. But the awkwardness and anxiety of everyone in the room might have been displayed on the holoprojector for how obvious it was.

But a few moments after the last person filled in and the ushers took their place as well, the projector actually activated. Using the backdrop of the unnamed nebula theem Supremacy /emfloated in, a two dimensional projection appeared. It showed a stage on some snowy planet, with its own neat lines of First Order personnel. The camera zoomed in to show the face of General Hux. Many high ranking officers, including Captain Phasma, stood arranged behind him. He then began to give a speech:

"Today is the end of the Republic! The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder! At this very moment, in a system far from here the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance."

Well, that was pretty much a restatement of what Peavey had said in his announcement and the usual lines about why the New Republic was bad.

"This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand, will bring an end to the Senate! To their cherished fleet! All remaining systems will bow to the First Order!"

But that part was interesting. Since Casper was currently standing on one of the secret First Order projects, that had to be the other one, S Base. He still wasn't sure how a planetary base could manage such a feat.

"And will remember this... _AS THE LAST DAY OF THE REPUBLIC!_

The intensity of Hux's last line was able to send shivers down Casper, despite his apathy. Although it wasn't enough to bring on another existential crisis. It reminded him of the speech given by Grand Admiral Rax right before the Battle of Jakku, although the later was much longer, and in Casper's completely uninformed opinion, much better.

The projection then cut to another camera, one showing the legions of stormtroopers and officers watching the speech in person. They suddenly raised a fist in the air in salute. Since they weren't briefed in what to do, the beings watching light years away simply remained at attention. Then the soldiers assembled at S Base turned away from the stage, and the camera cut again.

This view showed the side of some slightly raised structure, surrounded by trees. Then the ground began to rumble, as a bright beam, recognizable as red through the blue tint, shot towards the sky, with the force to bend back trees. Snow near the beam melted, as the transparisteel the camera was behind cracked and was blown away. Soon the camera shut off, as whoever was managing the broadcast realized it was in danger of being destroyed, and wanted to avoid the embarrassment of technical difficulties. But Casper had already put it together.

They'd done it again. He'd known about both of the Death Stars, the first after Alderaan and the second when the _Eviscerator_ was assigned to protect it(He hadn't been on the ground at Endor or been at a viewport capable of seeing the second one when it exploded, but the _Eviscerator_ was part of the battle). And now they'd made a new one. One built into a planet and somehow capable of striking from across the galaxy.

As the Hosnian system was reduced to space dust, billions of beings loyal to the First Order also realized this. Some cheered at the death of the villainized New Republic. Others didn't consider the death of billions of faceless beings, and were excited that the wait was over, and that they could now be part of bringing stability and peace back to the galaxy. Others accepted such loses of innocent life as a necessary price. A few saw the terrifying loss of civilian life and couldn't condone it. But those few would be silenced in the upcoming days, either though justification that pushed such thoughts deep down, or the execution of their thinkers (or in many cases, their deaths unrelated to treasonous thoughts).

But for Casper, it was nothing. His brain couldn't comprehend the instant death of countless beings light years away, what that really meant. Without a visual brutal death, or a personal story, he just couldn't. But there was no joy for the First Order. The recent breaking of the ice due to the knowledge of Rae's existence did nothing then. He didn't even realize the upcoming full scale war with the Resistance would increase her chance of death.

Casper was fully complicit in the destruction of the Hosnian system, and he knew it. Apathy reigned.

* * *

 _This chapter was originally supposed to be much longer, covering all of TFA and TLJ from Casper's POV. But I realized this was a good stopping point, and breaking it into three parts (this, the rest of TFA, and then TLJ) would be much more reasonable. I have also decided that there will be another chapter after those of Casper finally meeting Rey as an adult. Bayora Station isn't based on anything from canon or legends, it's just a cool idea I came up with. I decided to use it just because it didn't look like anything being released in canon soon would explain what Del meant when he said the map was with Bayora. It also serves as a good explanation of where the Absolution was during TFA. Also according to legends Chiss naming rules, I know Tal should be called Mertalar, but since he's very big on efficiency, he just goes by his personal name. Tal is the child of a Chiss and one of the random Imperials on the Chimera. When Ezra took the Chimera to who knows_ where, _I headcanon that all the surviving grunts were dropped off at the Chiss Ascendancy. Also, I hope Unkar felt in character. It's really hard to write him when he isn't in a position of power._

 _And in response to the Guest who commented on chapter 4. I'm glad you enjoyed it! However, I don't think Rey needs a more positive veiw of imperials. Her assuming Ciena was a rebel came from her being so young. Most children under eight have an extremely black and white sense of morality. As she is forced to do more morally questionable things to survive, her veiws become less black and white. And Finn certainly allows her to understand that the Empire/First Order is made up of people. However, she will eventually be able to piece together her origins once she meets Casper. Although knowing who left her on Jakku is more important than knowing her biological parents._

 _I would also like to thank the guest who commented to tell me that this chapter was displaying with all the HTML tags._ Unfornately _this happens frequently because I copy my fics right from the AO3 input box as part of my editing system. I had found a fix for that,_ witch _is using_ copy _as plain text, instead of regular old copy. But I had forgotten to do that. It shouldn't happen in the future, or at least it should be caught sooner._


	6. Chapter 6: Complicit Part 2

_Seventeen hours after the Hosnian Cataclysm- The Supremacy, Unnamed nebula in the Unknown Regions_

Casper closed the holoshow he was watching and almost didn't realize that there was another update in the Skywalker search database. He'd pushed out what he'd witnessed yesterday out of his mind, but the entire ship was filled with a nervous energy.

The First Order's return to the galaxy was imminent, but no one had received any orders. There were rumors of battle with the Resistance on some outlaw planet, simultaneous with the destruction of Hosnian Prime. But that wasn't relevant to anyone other than the brass and tacticians.

Oh well, turns out that battle did happen. A bounty hunter named Bazine Netal had reported seeing the droid on a planet called Takodana. The gist of the battle was that when the First Order appeared to apprehend the droid, the Resistance was somehow also aware of the droid's location and had scrambled squadrons in defense. Surprisingly, the many pirate and smuggler ships chose to flee rather than defend Takodana, a planet that had remained independent and neutral for so long specifically because many criminal elements were dedicated to making sure the planet remained neutral ground.

Casper didn't dig into any of the tactical reports, again, it wasn't his job. Instead, he read the status update for how the battle affected the Skywalker search. And it was...surprising. The droid and Rae had fled into the woods, only to be followed by Kylo Ren. He was unable to obtain the droid, but he told the commanders of the battle that it didn't matter. A retreat commenced and the Resistance easily routed the slower soldiers. Ren claimed that interrogating the girl was sufficient to discover the location of Skywalker.

Casper's heart sank while it felt like this stomach had migrated to his throat. The torture and interrogation methods the First Order had access to were gruesome. He knew this first hand, having been ordered by Malarus to observe her many times. And that was ignoring the unknown dark magics Ren could wield. Casper knew, that if he was on site at Starkiller, he would do anything to allow Rae to escape, before she would be subjected to such things, regardless of the personal risk to himself. But with no outlet for such determination, it quickly faded, as Casper forced himself to be lost in data pushing.

* * *

It was a barely an hour before the results of Rae's capture and interrogation were added. Casper didn't want to open them. But like a ship crash or stormtrooper caught at the edge of a blast radius, morbid curiosity kept him from just closing the folder. He wasn't sure that if there was a recording of the interrogation if he could keep himself from watching it.

Thankfully there wasn't. Instead, there was your typical form, linking Rae to the scavenger turned fugitive before. Some other officer had pieced together the proper information, since Casper assumed Ren didn't do it himself. The better quality picture of her showed her unconscious, but just like the rest of the information about her interrogation, the standard protocol of identifying how she was rendered unconscious was excluded. But he recognized the gaunt face of a humanoid forced to live off of Unkar's rations, skipping many meals. But there were no scars and she did seem excessively malnourished. Her hair was still tied in the buns Casper had left her in. He wondered how Rae preserved them. Did a friendly scavenger show her how? Did that scavenger understand the cultural significance of the three buns, or did they just think it was an easy way to keep one's hair out of their eyes?

Casper had to shut his eyes tight and take a deep breath to keep himself from being lost speculating on what kind of situation she had been left in. Once he broke out of that, he scrolled down, grateful that there was no transcription or recording of the interrogation, just like with Phillo.

Instead, the results of the interrogation were simply listed as inconclusive and that Rae was to remain in the interrogation room under guard instead of being placed in a cell. But there was a file attached with a clearance level he had never even seen before. It was higher than even the information on S base and other projects. In fact, Casper assumed this was an error, and the file wasn't even supposed to be attached. Kriff, even the filename was redacted, he couldn't even get a number. He could only assume that whatever information was in that file, it was on the same level as information like who Kylo Ren was under his mask or the details of Grand Admiral Sloane's death. Which made him think.

Then Casper had an idea. An idea that could still get him quietly executed or interrogated, but acted on it before really considering what could happen.

"Quaynara," he said, waiting to continue until the cyborg broke her attention away from the information she was feeding directly into her brain. "Can you list all the imperial facilities on Jakku directly before the battle?"

Quay thought for a moment, searching the First Order database way more quickly than he could. She started naming villages and mining facilities that the Empire had occupied, with a few quickly built factories and garrisons in there as well. Casper listened intently, but then he released a way he could speed up the process. What he didn't realize what that everyone in the group was watching, confused why he was asking Quay when he could access the database with the computer right in front of him.

"Can you narrow that down to imperial facilities location of or near the Plaintive Hand plateau?"

Quay paused for a moment, before saying in her modulated voice. "There are no imperial facilities in the area around the Plaintive Hand plateau."

That didn't make sense. Even if Rae's presence in the stronghold was a secret, there should at least be official records of the place existing. And if Casper didn't have the clearance to view such information, he should at least be allowed to find out if it exists, or have Quay tell him that it was classified. And the old imperial records surrounding Jakku were the best kept, since the ships they were on were the ones that fled into the Unknown Regions.

There was something Casper didn't know. He had a few pieces of a puzzle, but certainly not enough to even have an idea of what the final picture was. Or even be able to connect the few scraps of information he knew.

It was Wen speaking up that broke him out of his mental freefall.

"Cas, you wanna train?"

On the edges of Casper's perception, Tal shot a puzzled look towards the younger humanoid. Then he realized what Wen was planning, and nodded.

"Uh sure," Casper replied, unaware of the silent exchange, still lost in thought.

* * *

Casper followed Wen to the training room, his mind still focused on forcing the pieces he had together than where he was headed. But he made it there without incident, as the path from the spare room to the training room one he'd walked many times.

As he and Wen changed into their training clothes, he wasn't aware that the young woman was also occupied with thoughts of her own.

When Wen set-up the simulation (a simple touch score counter), she handed Casper a training vibrosword and took one for herself. These weren't part of any stormtrooper's training regime, even melee specialist. It was just there to get someone used to fighting against the weapon of choice for many criminals. Casper noticed how this was unusual, but didn't say anything.

Casper blocked Wen's horizontal strike vertically, but they became locked in a brute force parry as Wen started to speak.

"Why were you asking Quay about Jakku? You could have looked it up on your computer- unless you wanted it to be harder to track."

The question caused Casper to falter and Wen to get a hit. His score vest flashed and Wen disengaged and stepped back, still waiting for an answer.

"Listen, I'm from Jakku," Casper replied, his blade in a ready position. "Well not originally, but I spent over a decade there. We- me and Malarus- we fought for the old Empire on Jakku. That's where we met. We were stranded after the battle."

For a moment, Wen almost dropped her blade entirely in response, but then she brought it up and kept swinging and advancing as she talked, each sentence an attack, requiring Casper to parry and retreat, but it wasn't challenging to keep up physically.

"I'm from Jakku. But before the battle. I was born there. I don't even remember what happened to my parents. I barely remember the orphanage. But I remember enough to understand the difference. Going from always being at near-starvation to always having a full belly. Searing heat and deadly cold to the perfectly controlled climate of a ship. All the comforts, no- necessities the First Order provided."

Casper had just blocked a strike to his leg, when Wen continued, but they remain locked, focusing more on the conversation than training.

"I wasn't part of the first group that was trained. But a day before the battle, stormtroopers came in. I don't remember what happened to the anchorites, but they took all the orphans. The older ones who could walk had to carry those who couldn't. It was scary. I don't remember much beyond the transport and all the pressed in bodies."

Both Wen and Casper's blade had separated now, although they weren't aware of it. Both weapons hung limply in their hands, the combatants more focused on the conversation.

"But after the battle, we were on a different ship. And we were all lined up. I didn't understand, but we were going to the Unknown Regions, to create the First Order. The older Hux was there, as was Admiral Sloane. Hux had a group of orphans who'd he already trained. They were all older and capable of fighting. One of them was Cardinal. I don't know what happened to the rest. But it was explained what was happening, in a simple way children could understand. Everyone six or older was assigned to one of the older children, Hux called them sergeants. Most groups were divided by similar ages. I was in Cardinal's group. We were given numbers instead of names. It seemed a small price to pay for what food and water they'd already given us. I don't-oh stars."

Wen paused, suddenly concerned as something dawned on her. This was enough to break Casper out of his trance. And now he felt awkward. They were standing in a training room and Wen was spilling her entire life story.

"I don't remember my birth name," Wen said this plainly, but under her steady words, she was terrified. "And it's not like I was saved before I was able to form memories. I remember Jakku, but I don't remember my name."

Casper struggled to know what to say. He was named. Even if he'd trained as a stormtrooper, he'd had sixteen years of being called only by his given name. But he tried anyway. "I mean, you're Wen, aren't you? I can barely remember all your numbers. That's what we call you. It might not be the name an algorithm or your parents gave you, but that's what you are."

Wen gave a half smile. "You're right. And that's not just what Tal stuck me with, my old squad, they didn't call me Wen. We all had WN in our ids. I was Scit, short for scitter mouse, cause how I was so physically weak. But, that was what Cardinal called me once we both found our purpose."

"Oh yeah," Casper said, feeling that this new conversational vibe better allowed responding.

The two of them had ended up sitting cross-legged on the slightly padded floor, their weapons on the side. "I've always wondered, how did you end up as an information curator? Since you've mentioned before you trained as a trooper. And I always thought that they used olds to fill non-combat roles early on."

"You're right. But no matter what Hux tried, I was always too weak. But Cardinal saw my skill with writing and images. And then Hux tested me and saw how good I was at understanding how to present information to get people to understand what was really true. So by the time there was a second generation of troopers to train, and Cardinal was captain, I worked in information."

There was a sense of longing in her voice for those days.

"Do you miss it?"

Wen closed her eyes and gave an ironic laugh, before opening them and continuing. "Of course I miss it. I loved working on the Absolution. And not just because I had more of a purpose. I didn't spend my entire time cooped up in a computer room. I went out and saw Cardinal teaching. I loved being around the kids. Knowing that they'd grow up to bring order and peace to the galaxy, so no one else has to live like the people of Jakku."

Casper felt a twinge of guilt. He had remained numb to the ideological reasons he fought, even though the cracking of the ice. To him, the First Order did their thing, and he'd never thought much about the consequences of their actions. Although he wasn't considering those effects right then either. It's just when seeing the strength of Wen's commitment and belief, he felt like he should be doing more. He wasn't really living for anything, but life wasn't too bad for him.

But such feelings and self-examination didn't last for much longer.

Wen got up. "Well that was weird," she said, embarrassed. "We just spilled our entire life stories instead of training." She reached out her hand to help Casper up off from the floor.

"Yeah," Casper replied as he picked up his vibroblade from the ground. "I mean we should still have some time to train. Although us both using vibroblades aren't really gonna help you get rated."

"Good point." Even as she was talking, Wen was putting her blade away and choosing a different weapon. "I was just so rattled when you asked Quay about Jakku. I was suspicious..I thought you might be searching for information for bad reasons. But I wanted to confront you alone. I'm not worried about that now."

Casper didn't want to point out how he hadn't even answered anything about why he wanted a list of all known imperial installations on Jakku. He hadn't even told Wen a version of his story that excluded Rae. But if she was satisfied, he didn't really want to. She'd opened up so much, but even then he didn't really feel obligated to return the favor unprompted.

So instead, he dueled Wen with his vibroblade against a batton. And the slight clarity of mind Casper had been able to achieve these past several days, was gone. Even the worry about Rae or the great mystery he stood at the edge of was pushed away, so that he could survive.

* * *

At first the commanders tried to keep the news from spreading. It took almost an entire standard day for their to be conformination at all levels that Starkiller base had been destroyed. Wen was shocked and horrified. The Resistance had slaughtered countless loyal First Order members, many of them sub-adults! The project that had been worked on for almost three decades, the countless amounts of resources and manpower used were gone in an instant. Not even the news of Phasma being assumed dead brought Wen some smug satisfaction. And now there would be a war, time spent fighting and dying that would delay ultimate order being brought back to the galaxy.

Tal remembered what his human father had said about Thrawn, the Chiss Admiral he served under in the Empire. Thrawn's pet project was the TIE Defenders, TIEs with shielding and hyperdrives that could stand up one-on-one against a rebel X-wing. Those traits, to a lesser extent had been added to First Order ties, and the project still lived on, but during the Empire its funding was continuously cut. Only after Tal's father had joined the First Order did he learn what those credits were being used for, the Death Star. From what his father could tell, Thrawn disapproved of it, seeing it as the embodiment of the expression sending all your children to the same mine. And such as thing was evident once again, as a third planet destroying super weapon was destroyed in less than a week after full operation. But it was not Tal's place to disagree with such orders. Even if he spent his day at a computer terminal, he was still a soldier.

But there was only one thing Casper cared about. Rae. Although a notice had been sent out, saying she had escaped her cell, there was no guarantee she has escaped Starkiller before its destruction. The part of Malarus that still lived in Casper reminded him that an untrained scavenger was an easy trade for destroying a weapon that could wipe them out instantly. Even the Resistance's best soldiers would be worth it. But this didn't cause him to rise up in anger against the Resistance or the First Order, just resign himself to what he knew was next.

The First Order still knew where the Resistance base was located, and the full strength of the fleet would be brought down on them. But it would take several days for the invasion to begin. Traveling from nebula, space stations, and conquered planets across the Unknown Regions, the fleet converged at the staging area. But hyperlanes through the Unknown Regions were notoriously fickle. But everyone, on both sides, knew this was the calm before the storm.

The Cold War was over.

This was the Second Galactic Civil War.


	7. Chapter 7: Complicit Part 3

A/N: Sorry this took so long, and it took even longer than it did being posted on...that other fanfiction site, because formatting on this site is challenging and I just didn't have the drive to. Also I know I've said the next chapter will be the last one, but there was a scene I wanted to include in this, but it didn't fit in with the pacing, so then I was going to make a short interlude chapter, and then it ended up being way longer and more complicated than I expected, but you should be getting it soon.

* * *

 _The Siege of the_ Raddus _\- The Supremacy, Crait System (System PZ-43 Gamma)_

Casper leaned against the bulkhead, technically breaking the rules for a stormtrooper on duty, but he didn't even care. It had been almost 10 hours and the whole ship was on edge. With almost every free capital ship in pursuit of the Resistance, no crew member was in their bunks. Since he was technically rated for Stormtrooper duty, Casper was assigned to this one hallway to be ready in case of boarding or Resistance infiltration. He shared the post with some other Stormtrooper, a regular. He had gotten the man's ID number, but nothing else. Casper had just come to relieve the soldier, having spent the past eight hours in the ready room, drinking caf, a named officer interloper to the squads assigned there.

With the ships under battle protocol, all the spare rooms were emptied out. Wen was also handed armor and sent to another section of the ship. Quay's processing power had been co-opted for some secret project. Nobody knew where Tal was. He'd been pulled away a week ago, right after Starkiller had blown up, while the rest of the room was given a more strict supervisor and duties processing and piecing together casualty reports.

So when Casper was given the post, not used to the limited vision in a bucket, yet overwhelmed by the new HUD, when he knew no one was watching, he slumped against the bulkhead, giving his old joints some relief. He managed to occupy himself for a bit by going through each of the menus on the more advanced First Order HUD. Even with his minimal live combat experience, he could tell how useful all of the new features were. Imperial buckets just had ID tags for your fellow soldiers, coms, and intel storage. This one had things like tech analysis, automatic Resistance operative matching, and aiming assistance. But none of the new features helped him pass the time. With no real mission, all the intel folders were empty.

Casper ended up passing the time by shutting off his comm mic and signing half-remembered songs, trying his best not to fall asleep listening to the hum of the ship.

* * *

Thankfully Casper was aware enough to hear the sound of boots echoing off the walls of the Supremacy. He quickly stood up straight and shifted his blaster into the proper position. But he was surprised, when instead of revealing an officer or perhaps another stormtrooper, it was someone else.

It was a male human, wearing non-standard dark clothes. An ugly scar bisected his face. He marched with haste. He couldn't have been a bounty hunter. They couldn't walk around the ship without escort. There was one stormtrooper following behind him, carrying binders.

"You!" the man snapped at Casper, causing him to stand at full attention on instinct.

Casper was surprised when the other stormtrooper, DF-7831 according to the HUD, sent him a closed audio message. It was considered against protocol to send such messages except for in combat or extraneous situation. And you definitely shouldn't do so in the presence of what seemed to be an officer.

"Hey just so you know, that's Kylo Ren. No idea what happened to his mask, just don't make the same mistake I did. "

Casper studied the man- Ren, more closely. Well now at least he knew the First Order's mystery warrior was a human, as most people suspected.

"You, trooper, with me," Kylo Ren ordered Casper without even checking to see that he followed him. Casper fell in with DF, while Ren marched ahead of him, his rage so obvious it almost gave off heat.

Casper followed Ren to a hangar bay, as the TIE fighters escorted in some old beat up Corellian escape pod.

Ren continued to march towards the coffin-shaped escape pod. At the same time, Casper felt drawn to it as well. The pod opened, and as the vapor faded away, he got a glimpse at the face around Kylo Ren's body.

It was her.

Rae sat up in the escape pod, staring up at Ren, fearless. She wasn't wearing her dessert rags, but some new clothes of thicker cloth, although still in a similar style.

Under the helmet, Casper smiled in pride. Some small part of him said: This isn't your daughter. She is not the child of your blood, nor did you raise her, but he couldn't hear it.

Sure she was a kriffing Resistance fighter, but she had escaped Jakku. And she was part of something big, something greater than any deci-credit a dozen stormtrooper or kid on Vardos. Or the child of two desert rats. Whatever great destiny she ended up with from being in that vault, she seemed to be living up to it.

But within all the love and pride, there was something else. Something more powerful, more enduring, and more insurmountable.

Fear.

It was fear that kept Casper rooted in place. That kept his outward appearance professional while inside, and even on his face, he was spiraling in free fall. It kept him from running forward and embracing Rae, for tearing off his helmet and apologizing for abandoning her.

Ren stretched out his hand for the cylinder Rey had clutched to her chest. "I'll take that. It belongs to me."

Rae held Kylo's gaze for a moment, before looking down at the object- the lightsaber. "Strange, then, that it called to me at the castle and not to you," she replied coyly.

"You're in no position to dictate."

Rae held out the lightsaber to her new captor and Casper's finger moved over his trigger as he saw the dark warrior approach Rae- approach his daughter. He'd be dead in a moment, but if Ren tried to hurt her-

That single moment of certainty evaporated as Ren snatched the lightsaber from her hand. Whatever worry Rae was feeling, the loss of her weapon didn't increase it. Or maybe she was just good at hiding it. Either way, Casper could no longer bring himself to pull the trigger and bring down certain death on both of them. And that, he reasoned, was probably better.

After placing the weapon on his belt, Ren stepped back to allow Rae to climb out of her escape pod. He then motioned for DF to come forward and put Rae in binders.

"That isn't necessary," Rae said to Kylo, but she didn't resist.

"It is," Kylo turned towards the innards of the ship and stalked away. "We have an appointment."

Before DF could lead her by the arm, Rae strode after Ren, struggling to keep pace and her calm demeanor. Casper and DF followed another few paces behind, while the crew of the hangar awkwardly return to their work, lost as protocol fell apart around their ears.

Casper's mind whirled as he tried to figure out where Rae was being taken. He had no idea if she was a prisoner or not. She seemed to have arrived of her own volition. Perhaps she was a Resistance envoy. But then why would Kylo have met her alone? Was she here separate of the Resistance?

As questions and scenarios swam through his head, Casper slowly increased his pace to match Rae's. When Kylo held up a hand to halt all three of them as he called a turbo-lift (possibly the one to the Supreme Leader's throne room, if Casper's mental map of the Supremacy was correct), Casper was right by Rae's side.

She didn't acknowledge him. She kept her eyes trained ahead at Ren. At this distance, Casper could easily see she was struggling to keep her breathing regular.

Casper reached out and gently grabbed her forearm. Rae's head whipped back to him and she stared at the blank visor of this odd Stormtrooper.

Even though the cloth around her arm and the fabric of his glove, reaching out to touch Rae had made this real in a way it wasn't before. He tried to imagine that they had a connection. That the gesture was seen as reassuring, not just weird and creepy.

On the outside, Casper looked the same as any other stormtrooper. Menacing and stone-faced, just like design.

But under the helmet, Casper's face told a different story. It was the face of a father finally reunited with his daughter.

And he didn't want to lose her again.

When the turbo-lift arrived, Kylo entered and motioned for Rae to follow. She broke Casper's gaze and his grip on her. She strode forward, fearless into the lift.

Although Casper remained stunned, DF took a step forward. Kylo held up a hand to stop him.

"That won't be necessary. You're dismissed,"

Casper heard none of this as the doors of the lift closed. He stared at his daughter, and prayed to whatever could hear him that it wasn't the last time he would see her face.

So while DF returned to his post, Casper stayed.

* * *

Rey stared at the stormtrooper who had just grabbed her arm. It wasn't a restraining grip, she could easily break away at any time. And his partner remained a few paces behind. Whatever this was, it was personal.

 _Who are you_?

Rey wondered if he was like Finn. If he wanted to escape, but couldn't say anything. Despite the blank helmet, Rey tried to get a read on them, to try to figure out what her instincts said, just like what she'd done with many scavengers on Jakku.

Wait, she should be reaching out with the Force. She should try to feel him, like how she could tell Luke had cut himself off from the Force, or that Ben was a raging storm of conflict.

He was familiar.

The vaguest of memories tugged at the corners of Rey's mind. Something about pain turning into warmth. And that warmth was still there, but it was like a fire that only had a few remaining embers.

But she had no idea why.

Rey broke her eye-contact with the stormtrooper when the lift arrived and Ben called her forward, dismissing her escort.

She forced the confusion and the stormtrooper out of her mind. She only had a few more moments to bring Ben back to the light. She would have to say the right words and do the right things, to be like Luke Skywalker. Not the one she met on the island, but the one from the stories. The one who brought Vader back to the light.

And she tried. She thought she had for a moment, when Kylo Ren turned the Skywalker saber onto his master. But there was something she didn't account for. Her only stories of the conflict between light and dark had been those of recent history, those told by Amid. They excluded a crucial detail about how servants of the Dark Side acted. Something that scarred millennia of history and brought the Sith down to what should only be two at a time.

That a dark-sider slaying their master doesn't mean they have turned to the light.

And when Kylo Ren tried to convince Rey to rule the galaxy with him. And when he said what he believed to be the truth about her parents, but even then was a still a lie (for he knew how she would have fit into the contingency plan that birthed the First Order), that was all that consumed Rey's thoughts as his poisoned words cut through her heart.

In the stressful hours and days to come, Rey wouldn't remember the odd stormtrooper. And as she confronted Kylo's truth and her greatest fear, she was unaware the parent she sought was the closest he had ever been before.

* * *

Casper stood in front of the turbo-lift. He feared for his daughter's life, but he hoped that any moment she would exit the lift triumphant. And he would tear off his helmet and explain everything.

But that never came. Instead, the entire ship jolted, hard enough to knock Casper to the ground. For a moment, a sense of wrongness filled him and wrapped an invisible wire around his lungs. But it quickly faded and was replaced with fear.

Not the paralyzing fear he had felt since Rae came aboard, but raw, empowering, running-for-your-life fear.

He got up and saw that although all the lights had flickered, only some of them had come back on. A scattering of red emergency lights filled the hallway. It was like even the ship was confused about what had occurred.

Casper left his blaster on the ground as he sprinted through the ship, trying to find the nearest engineering room. He pulled himself in one, and the crew didn't even look up as they frantically checked readings.

"Everyone be quiet!" the head engineer shouted, causing all the work to screech to a halt. "Something has sheared the ship in half. At least on our side, all the blast doors near effected zones still functioned. We're pressurized."

A collective sigh of relief spread through the room, but the engineer ruined that too.

"The ship's design isn't modular. There are plenty of zones that have aspects of their power and life-support systems on the other side of the ship. Our zone has lost some of our lights, all of our external coms, and parts of the diagnostic system. But we got all of life support. The problem is, the ship is on internal lock-down because of the breach. It looks like our external hangars can still be opened, but the blast doors between zones aren't going to be overridden by anyone but the bridge."

"Do we have the bridge?" one brave engineer asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not even sure if an override command could get through since, comms to other zones are also down. The only way anyone can get a message to us is by someone physically delivering it through the hangar."

"Well at least we're still flying half a ship," the same engineer joked, clearly unable to read the room. He was silenced with a glare by the head engineer.

"Um, excuse me?" Casper asked, bringing all the attention to him now, "Is the Supreme Leader's throne room in a pressurized zone with oxygen?" They'd probably just assume he was a sycophant worried about Snoke.

"It's pretty close to the breach point, in the next zone over, but other than that, it looks to be fine.

"And the holding cells?" Casper didn't care what assumptions they'd make from that.

The chief engineer started to click through a few screens, but then stopped. She turned back to him. It was clear she was already very stressed and even more annoyed by this random stormtrooper who had barged into her domain.

"I'm sending everyone the best diagnostic schematic to look at. I want the left side working on getting more data. Right side work on establishing comms with other zones, or anywhere you can. I'll also bring it up the schematic on an empty terminal so our new friend can stop bothering me."

Once the engineer turned back to her work, the frantic energy of the room returned, but now it had direction. Casper tore off his helmet and placed it on top of the terminal. His hair was slicked down with sweat.

Hunching awkwardly over the terminal, Casper got to work. The engineer had been right about the throne room being fine. It also still had contact with the bridge. He only checked the nearest section of holding cells. It had lost its lights, however, the cell lockdown failsafes still functioned. But a closer look at the normal floorplan of the ship told Casper that Rae and Kylo couldn't have left the throne room without passing him.

Feeling a bit lost now, Casper searched for the location of Classified Zone Besh, Quay's assignment. It was in the same raised section as he was, but-

Well, that didn't make any sense.

CZ Besh had been obliterated. It wasn't in the path of whatever had cleaved the ship, but all it was sending back was null data. Not a communication failure, but that every diagnostic stat was reporting that the devices to measure it had been destroyed. The zones nearby were also reporting greater damage than the rest of the ship. Whatever had broken the ship had reacted with the project, and created a catastrophic effect.

Quay was dead. She probably didn't even notice anything. All of her neural processes would have been co-opted for the past many hours. Casper wasn't that close to her, it would have been like befriending a droid, but it hurt. It felt like something had been pulled out of his heart and left a hole full of something he didn't have time to analyze.

Without realizing it, Casper had already typed Wen's assigned zone into the search field. The Supremacy was so massive, and so many zones disrupted the standard naming pattern, he hadn't even realized where her assignment was located.

It was in the path of the breach point. All the blast doors around her would have sealed instantly, while Wen was pulled out into space, her kit only providing a few extra seconds before she died. Or maybe the explosion would have vaporized her in moments.

Wen was dead.

If Quay's death had pulled out a chunk of his heart, Wen's had removed what had remained. She had been Casper's closest friend over the years, the only person who could provide short respites of joy among the ice.

But unlike when he lost the first time, no ice came to cover this hole. Casper was left empty. And the last remains of ice and denial around Rae shattered with it. It didn't matter that the throne room was intact, she was as good as dead anyway.

Casper couldn't stand anymore. Ignored by the rest of the engineers, Casper managed to lower himself to the floor. He placed his head in his hands, and with no thoughts remaining and only emptiness to draw the water from, Casper began to cry.

This was the first time he had cried in thirty two years.

* * *

A/N: If you couldn't figure it out, Quay was being used in the hyperspace tracker, because according to the visual dictionary it works by brute forcing the small amount of radiation and data left by an object jumping into hyperspace against the First Order's extensive hyperlane records. It also uses a modified hyperspace field to slow down time to allow the calculations to take a reasonable amount of time. My headcanon about why Holdo's attack was so effective is that it was the equivalent of throwing a bomb at a box of munitions. That's why the tracker room was devastated. The small bit of wrongness Casper feels is because of how hyperspace is force related and bends the fabric of reality. Holdo bending reality so much and directly killing so many people using it caused a small burst of dark side energy. Oh and the extra dialogue when Rey gets out of the escape pod comes from the TLJ novelization.


	8. Chapter 8: Remembrance

_Note: Sorry this took so long for me to post compared to the other site. That's mostly a matter of me just forgetting. And well, this isn't the final chapter I promised. This is based on a scene that was supposed to fit into Complicit, but couldn't. And then I ended up making it more complicated than it was going to be originally. Well, Wen got her development and backstory, so here's Tal's. And my headcanons about the Chiss post-TLJ._

* * *

 _Two weeks after the death of Supreme Leader Snoke- First Order Orbital Command Base Delta- Zenalkar's Orbit_

"I fold," Casper said, placing his Sabacc hand face down.

His opponent, a stormtrooper nicknamed Red, nodded and started to gather the cards. Red wasn't wearing a helmet or armor. No one really bothered anymore. The unusual thing was that he was a Twi'lek (red-skinned, hence the name). Just like most of the stormtroopers of the First Order, he had been recruited as an infant. His lekku had been cut off in an allegedly harmless and painless operation to allow him to wear a helmet. Casper had found records of other near-humans in similar situations. But with the anti-alien policies of the First Order, those beings had even less of a chance of making officer than their human counterparts.

"See you around Cas," Red said after he finished, slipping the battered deck into his utility belt, the only piece of armor he wore over his body glove.

"Yeah, see you," Casper said as he got up from his place on the floor and went to stand by one of the viewports, looking out over the stars of the Unknown Regions.

Ever since the destruction of the Supremacy, and so much of the First Order's fleet, it had been hard. A handful of ground troops had followed the Resistance down to the planet. And somehow they had escaped. Rumors circulated about Luke Skywalker's presence or lack thereof. And of course, his alleged death.

But for Casper, and the beings of that engineering room, it had taken 24 hours for a small cruiser to show up and for all the personnel to board. They'd been taken to a system locally called Zenalkar, one of the few planetary holdings of the First Order in the Unknown Regions. This one had doomium that the natives didn't even realize the importance of.

But the station wasn't designed to hold so many. Even now, there were rumors about sending the troops planetside and billeting them with the workers, but nothing had come through. So they'd made do. No commands had come down, and there weren't enough spare rooms for the surviving displaced members of the fleet anywhere. There had been enough order to keep power and food properly rationed, but that was all. The large connecting room for civilian hangars had been turned into a makeshift camp. Spare bedding was spread out, and beings sat in groups, trying to find some way to pass the time.

And Red wasn't the only person only in a body-glove. Casper was too. It hadn't been washed in weeks and had become crinkly with his own dried sweat. And pretty much no stormtrooper walked around fully kitted out. There were even officers around only in their underclothes, having turned their jackets into bedding.

There was one confirmed piece of news that reached everyone on the station. That Supreme Leader Snoke had died, killed at the hands of a Resistance Jedi assassin who'd come under the guise of discussing surrender.

At the hands of Rae.

Casper didn't know, or even care if it was true. He still loved her. But she was public enemy number one, possibly even more sought after than General Organa herself. She'd escaped after disabling Ren. Who was now the Supreme Leader? Phasma was also dead, and she definitely wasn't coming back this time.

But Casper did know one thing. He wouldn't be complicit anymore. When he got the chance, he'd run. He'd seek out the Resistance. He'd give them anything they wanted, so long as they let him tell Rae the truth. To reunite with her. It not like he had any friends in the First Order left to betray.

Well, there was still Tal.

And as if the thought had summoned it, a Chiss ship dropped out of hyperspace and began to dock at the station.

* * *

Tal looked out the viewport, past the space station, to the planet it orbited. Decades of strip-mining by the First Order had turned what Chiss databanks recorded as a tropical jungle planet into a dark gray mass. But that wasn't their destination. The _Ozyly-esehembo_ signaled for the manual helmsman to bring them in, and she left her station to rest after such a long journey.

 _"Mertalar,"_ Aristocra Nresh'kabat'arquen said in Cheunh, not turning to address him. _"What position does this station hold within the First Order? "_

 _"Aristorca, if I may- "_ Diplomat Vanto said, before Tal could respond. He was an elderly human, and Thrawn's former aide. He'd been sent to the Ascendency years before the _Chimera_ , and was the official Chiss liaison to the First Order. While Tal had been quickly promoted after the destruction of Starkiller base to be the First Order diplomat and translator and with Vanto representing Ascendancy interests, and being a human, albeit one who had lived on Csilla for decades and Tal being a half-Chiss who hadn't seen the Ascendancy since he was a teenager, and representing the First Order, as one would expect, a rivalry had sprung up.

 _"You may not,"_ Sh'kabatar snapped _, " I want to hear from Mertalar. He actually has experience with the First Order, and yes, I do trust him not to blatantly lie. "_

 _"The original intent of this meeting was to be at this location, Aristorca,"_ Tal began, _"simply because of its proximity to the Ascendancy. However, it was supposed to be conducted on the_ Supremacy _, our fleet's flagship. But as you know, the_ Supremacy _was destroyed in a battle against the Resistance, along with a majority of our capital ships. Our surviving ships are needed for the war effort. This space station is an administrative hub, one of little value. It was chosen because of its convenience and our inability to offer you anything more deserving of your station without sacrificing our own security. "_

 _"As you can see,"_ Vanto cut in _, " The First Order is coming from a place of weakness ."_

 _"Which was caused by a fluke victory,"_ Tal rebuked, _"The Resistance is more on the run than we are. They only have one smuggling ship and can fit of all their members within it ."_

 _"Not for long,"_ Vanto replied, this time in Basic.

 _"Both of you, silence,"_ The Aristorca ordered, _"I simply asked for information, not for you to do all the negotiating for me. "_

* * *

The arrival of the Chiss ship had sparked organized panic in the hangar. A commander, the highest ranking officer in the room had ordered everything pushed against the wall, but unless you had your full kit on hand, you didn't have to put it on. Everyone had lined up at parade rest, and just in time, for the governor of the system and station to arrive with his entourage.

And then the Chiss ship had disembarked. The Chiss woman in the front, who didn't wear an Expansionary Defense Force uniform, seemed to be the leader. The cape and golden epaulets also helped. She was followed by a squad of EDF soldiers in their green uniforms. There was a human on her right, also in an EDF uniform. But it was the being in the First Order uniform on her left that really caught Casper's attention.

It was Tal.

* * *

Casper! Keeping pace with the Chiss group, Tal watched Casper, at parade-rest, in only a body glove, stand among the lines of displaced beings. He was alive! And through Cas, Tal could find Wen and Quay. He might have been assigned a new duty now, but he could at least have closure.

But Tal forced all thoughts of Casper out of his head, when the governor of the station came out to meet Sh'kabatar, with his own stormtrooper escort. He switched over to standing by the governor's side, and translated all of the Aristorca's responses into Basic, while Vanto translated the governor's statements into Cheunh.

And it didn't go too well. Tal could tell that the governor had no idea how much he could promise the Chiss delegation, but at least he'd read his primer on the Ascendancy's house system. The meeting devolved into promises of good-will from both sides, with the governor promising a proper meeting with the new Supreme Leader and navigational data as a gift. It was clear, to anyone raised around Chiss, that Sh'kabatar felt offended by her treatment, but seemed to understand it was the best the First Order could offer. It reflected worse on their abilities, than their opinion of House Arquen and their possible Chiss allies.

And try as he might, Tal couldn't find a time to inform the First Order of the fact that the Ascendancy was on the brink of a civil war between the houses, without Vanto being able to hear. Arquen was part of the faction that supported allying with the First Order directly, ensuring the expansion of the Ascendancy in the process. The houses that historically opposed the neutrality mandate made up most of the faction. But even if they were a minority, those who didn't support the First Order had differences of their own, making those calling for war the largest. A handful of minor houses supported the Resistance, but they were so small, and had no military of their own, that all that meant was no house could find allies in them. The neutrality faction, the largest and most powerful, was falling apart between the true neutrals, and those who wanted to make a treaty with the First Order to ensure their independence.

In the end, nothing of true value was agreed upon in the course of the meeting, other than the date when Sh'kabatar and the other Aristorcas seeking an alliance would meet with the Supreme Leader.

* * *

Casper was grateful, for when the Chiss party was going to return to their ship, Tal said something to his Chiss boss and then broke off and ran over to Casper.

"Cas, you're alive," Tal said, leading his friend over to a place by the viewports where they could sit down, "I heard about what happened and-"

"Don't worry Tal," Casper replied, surprised at the actual warmth he felt seeing the half-Chiss alive.

"And Wen?"

The warmth dissipated suddenly, as Casper was reminded, again, of what happened that day.

Tal understood his silence, and the joy evaporated from his face.

"Quay too," Casper confirmed, without having to be asked.

Tal looked away and balled his fists. It looked like he was trying not to cry. "Kriff...kriff...not again…" were the only words Casper could make out.

"Tal, what do you mean? You're acting like this happened before."

Tal looked back at Casper, his fist brushing away invisible tears. "Not to me, no. But to my dad. There are rules to war. And those damn Jedi don't follow them."

Casper didn't quite understand. Tal had mentioned his dad and his imperial service in passing, but no specifics. Casper did know about Luke Skywalker, and rumors of some Jedi rebels in the early days, but no specifics. But Casper did know that "those damn Jedi " included Rae, forcing him to stifle sparks of anger.

Tal took a deep breath, "Oh, I've never told you about what happened with my dad."

"No sir," Casper said, adding the last part out of habit.

"My dad was in the Empire. He served under Grand Admiral Thrawn on his flagship, the _Chimera._ There was this last battle, to put down the rebellion on Lothal. You know about Lothal, right?"

 _"_ Enough." The rumors of a planet able to successfully and fully free itself after years under Imperial rule, before the Civil War even started had managed to get as far as Vardos.

"Well, this was the last battle. There was no reason the rebels should have won. There were only like five or ten of them. Less than even Yavin. But they had a Jedi. It was just some kid, he wasn't even older than the Empire. We had them dead-to-rights, so the kid surrendered. And this is where it gets weird. The surrender was false, the same dirty trick another Jedi used at the start of the Clone Wars. He took control of the bridge single-handedly, and then summoned purgil. He used his magic to control them. They plowed into all the ships except for the _Chimera,_ which they disabled and pulled into hyperspace with them."

Casper could see the similarities to the Jedi from Lothal and Rae's tactics. The official story was that a Jedi entered the throne room under the pretense of surrendering, only to assassinate Snoke. But Casper couldn't quite believe that the Jedi summoned and commanded purgils. It sounded like it was the same class of rumors that Jakku was once a verdant forest planet, or that a Sith Lord once ruled both Mandalore and most of the crime syndicates at the end of the Clone Wars.

"You sure that's what happened?"

"Well maybe not the specifics, but my dad somehow ended up in Chiss space in 18AFE."

"Anyway," Tal continued, "on old Empire era navicomputer, the _Chimera_ popped out above Csilla. If it wasn't for the purgils, I'm sure the Defense Force would have shot it down. They let the ship land and Thrawn told everyone over the com to take their personal effects, leave their weapons, and disembark. The way my dad told it, it had been days, there weren't any rations left. No one cared. No one told the Chiss what was happening, and the ship soon left. A bunch of humans who only knew Basic were left behind. If it wasn't for Vanto, some aide Thrawn had sent to the Ascendancy a few years back, the transition would have been even harder."

"Wow.." Casper didn't know what else to say. It hadn't happened to Tal, but with the way he told it, you could believe it did. And presuming Tal had been taught about the Jedi by his dad, grew up on the same stories Casper did, of course, he would hate those duplicitous bastards. Even with Casper's apathy towards First Order doctrine, without knowing it was his daughter who slew Snoke (and therefore had a good reason to), Casper might hate them too.

"Yeah. It just feels like everything is going around again. Same thing with Starkiller base, although any good tactician would have realized the flaws of the Death Star after the first one at a minimum. We got one Jedi ruining things, and the rebels pull out a hyperspace trick that by all rights shouldn't work, and everything goes down the drain."

"Wait, hyperspace tricks?" Casper was confused. He was able to put together that it had something to do with the Supremacy being impossibly sheared in half, and most of the fleet being damaged, but he didn't know what hyperspace had to do with it.

"Oh, they haven't told you yet?" Tal thought for a moment, probably about if it was above Casper's clearance to know, "Well I only got told because the Aristorica and the Admirals wanted to know what happened to our fleet, and if the Resistance could do it again. Anyway, the Resistance Mon Calamari Cruiser tried to jump, either right before the Supremacy, or with the jump point inside the ship, and then the Supremacy got sheared, and everyone else felt the shock waves. The weird thing is, that shouldn't have happened. The simulations and experiments for hyperspace missiles are old. And they all say, nothing that bad should have happened. With a ship that size, the Supremacy could have been damaged, maybe disabled, but nothing worse. There is a theory why, it's above your clearance, and that doesn't account for the shock wave. But it's not going to happen again, at a minimum because we know not to ignore what looks like a distraction."

"Oh." Casper expected that an answer like that would have brought him closure, but nothing happened.

The two of them sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, until Casper tried to make conversation again.

"So what is your new assignment? I understand if you can't say."

"Oh, I got pulled to be a diplomat with the Chiss. There was a Human who knew Cheunh, another Chimera crew member, who was on Starkiller. They thought the Chiss might trust me more, since I grew up in the Ascendancy and am half-Chiss, but they don't, not that command will listen. Sorry, I left without telling any- without telling you."

"That's fine."

More silence.

"Oh hey," Casper said, fishing for a topic of conversation and hoping wasn't too personal. "Why did you join the First Order?"

"It was my dad's idea. He wanted to join up as soon as the First Order appeared. He was always an Imperial at heart. My mom hated the idea. She managed to convince him to stay until I was eighteen, then I could choose where to go. Dad agreed, but only because she thought she might change her mind over time. It was a pretty ugly divorce, I ended up hating her. I went with him, only cause I thought the First Order might actually welcome me. The Chiss never did. It seemed like they treated the chimeras- they called us that, both because of the ship one of our parents came in on, and because of the whole different species slapped together thing- worse than the humans. We threw off their precious house and hierarchy system. I'm pretty human passing, so I thought the First Order would welcome me. Nope, neither side trusts me, and now I have to be a translator for both. And Vanto has this weird grudge I can't quite figure out." Tal slipped into cynical anger towards the end.

Casper had seized on Tal's dissatisfaction. He'd been holding onto the idea of- well if not defection, at least escape. And if Tal also wanted to leave, Casper could use the man's tactical skill. But he'd have to be careful. Before everything had gone sideways, before Casper actually cared about something, or knew about Tal's past, Tal would have turned him in for sedition. But now he didn't know. Tal would never turn to the Resistance, but leaving the First Order would probably be the hardest part.

"If no one trusts you, why do you stay? I mean, I'm sure the Chiss wouldn't take you back, but even with a war brewing, there should still be somewhere to hide."

Tal turned and stared Casper down. Even with the conversation already being so serious, it seemed like Casper had crossed some line into a new level seriousness. Instantly, anxiety bubbled and Casper regretted saying that, and wished for a do-over.

"I've made vows, Cas," Tal's voice had dropped to a deeper tone and his eyes almost seemed to be glowing, "I would never betray those vows. Allegiance is the most important thing. I'd be no better than the Jedi. I've worked to earn their trust, I have to prove them wrong."

Casper was relieved that none of Tal's anger went into questioning where his own loyalties lay, but that was pretty creepy. He was disappointed that he now knew that his one remaining friend couldn't be relied on. Even so, he reflexly did the "calm-down" motion with his hands.

Tal shook his head, as if breaking out of a trance. "Sorry about that. I know you meant nothing by that, and those statements were borderline-seditious in the first place. It's just my loyalties have always been questioned."

"No, it was my fault," Casper said. He did believe that, but not for the reasons Tal would assume, "and I suppose you wouldn't want to leave your dad."

"He's been dead for almost a year now," Tal was strangely matter-of-fact about it, especially compared to how he reacted to Wen and Quay's death. Casper supposed Tal had already mourned his father. "It was a skirmish on a mining planet. He was an overseer of a native-pop workcamp. They somehow got to the monitoring station before the enforcers could kill them."

Casper couldn't figure out what to say. He thought about his family, no not Rae nor his family through bonds, but his bio family. His parents and grandparents and little sister he joined the Empire for. How they died in a Republic bombing run on Vardos. He'd missed his sister becoming an adult...no she never became an adult, she died before that. And Riyu. But Tal could still reclaim that, his family divided by parces.

"Did your dad have a family? Back in the galaxy?"

Tal thought for a moment. "No. He was an orphan. On Coruscant, Corellia- one of those worlds. He did have a boyfriend...he got transferred to another seventh fleet ship right before Lothal." Tal didn't need to say more.

"What about your mom?" Casper didn't know why he had become so focused on Tal's family outside the Order. Maybe it was some foolish hope he still had that he could convince Tal to run away with him. "I know you said you hated her, but she's-" Casper almost said blood, but he knew that wasn't important. Blood didn't matter, he'd be a hypocrite if he thought so. It was love and what you did that counted. "She raised you. That has to count for something."

"You know," Tal bit his lip, "I don't hate her anymore. I haven't hated her for years. I just felt like I sided against her. But- she deserves to hate me. I abandoned her..and I said such terrible things."

Casper thought about Rae. She probably hated him. He left her behind on Jakku, in slavery. And then he was complicit in so much. He joined the First Order, while she gave up the scraps she had on Jakku to help the Resistance. Or maybe the Stormtrooper squad he suggested gather the droid destroyed what little she had. She surrendered herself...she was so brave. And Casper was a coward.

But he couldn't remain one. He'd bide his time, sabotage the First Order in little ways as he did. The nebulous goal of defection solidified. He was ready to take risks he never would have considered before. And he'd tell Rae the truth, and accept however she reacted. And he would accept whatever punishment the Resistance had for him.

Casper was so lost in thought he almost didn't hear the Human wearing the Ascendancy uniform clearing his thought. The man's arms were crossed and he was glaring at Tal.

"Mertalar why did you wander off? We're leaving now," the man said in Basic.

Tal hastily stood up and Casper followed his example. But Tal looked more like he was sizing up for a fight instead of being at loose attention in front of a superior officer. Casper decided to be safe and went for the later.

"Casper here is my friend, Vanto," Tal shot back, "I was just catching up. I got the Aristorica's permission. You'll be glad to know I trust you enough not to mess up the Governor telling Mertalar dates for future meetings and clearance codes. Or the gift of stable hyperplane data."

Vanto sighed. Whatever rivalry Tal had with the diplomat, it seemed to be more of an annoyance to the Human. "Ok, ok. The Aristorica wants you back. You aren't in trouble, the Governor just doesn't want you to stay," Vanto finished with something in Chenunuh, clearly not meant to be heard by Casper.

Tal replied in Cheunh, waved Casper goodbye, and followed Vanto towards the docking bay.

But before Tal could get too far, Casper realized he had something else to say. Although if it was for the half-Chiss' benefit or his own, he didn't know. He ran to catch up with his friend and called for him to stop.

Tal and Vanto stopped. Tal took a few steps to meet Casper, while Vanto rolled his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Remember what I said- about your mom. It's not too late. You don't have to act on it….just remember."

* * *

 _AN: Here's the Chenuh dialogue at the end translated:_

 _Eli: You want him to come with you? I'm sure the First Order won't mind giving you an aide, they seem to have plenty of folks to spare._

 _Tal: No, no, it's fine. I don't need one, and he'd be lost. Let's just head back._

 _The reason why Eli is so aggressive towards the First Order is that he thinks they're stupid and he wants to protect his adoptive nation from losing the war. Because he has heard Thrawn's rants about how stupid the Death Star is, and then the Empire went and built TWO and then the First Order built another. The plot of Thrawn Treason might also be relevant here. Speaking of Thrawn Treason, if a few throwaway lines become non-canon compliant, I will go back and edit it, but if the entire premise of the chapter falls apart, for whatever reason, then I'll just leave it as is. I hope he's_ in-character, _since I don't really have much to go off of when it comes to a much older Eli and Tal is a bit of an unreliable narrator when it comes to him._

 _Also Red is part of my headcanon that not all stormtroopers are_ human, _since there are so many disadvantaged non-humans the First Order could easily pick up. Red is the kid of a Twi'lek slave. And finally, the comment about how the hyperspace trick shouldn't have worked so well, what Tal doesn't know, is that (in this headcanon) with Hyperspace and the Force being related, the kyber crystals installed on all the Star Destroyers acted like amplifiers. And of course, there's still the stuff involving the tracker as well, which I put in the notes of the last chapter._


End file.
